KAUST recognized seven faculty members with RDIA Excellence Awards at LEAP 2025 and COP16 for contributions to Saudi Vision 2030. Awardees include Prof. Bernard Ghanem for AI, Prof. Carlos Duarte for marine science, and Prof. Mohamed Slim Alouini for communications. Their work advances AI, marine ecosystems, and digital inclusion within the Kingdom. Why it matters: The awards highlight KAUST's strategic role in driving research and innovation aligned with Saudi Arabia's national priorities in technology and sustainability.
Lubna Olayan, CEO of Olayan Financing Company, gave a keynote at KAUST's 2015 Winter Enrichment Program discussing how businesses and academic institutions can promote excellence. She emphasized that centers of excellence are catalysts for innovation and job creation, sharing characteristics like a multidisciplinary approach and meritocracies. Olayan highlighted Saudi Aramco and KAUST as examples, noting the successes of Stanford and MIT. Why it matters: This underscores the strategic importance of fostering centers of excellence like KAUST for driving economic growth and innovation in Saudi Arabia.
KAUST Professors Aamir Farooq and Mani Sarathy received the inaugural Research Excellence Award from The Combustion Institute (CI). The CI, established in 1954, promotes combustion science and technology research worldwide. The award recognizes CI members with impactful research papers in combustion science. Why it matters: This award highlights KAUST's contributions to combustion research and strengthens its position as a leading institution in this field.
KAUST Ph.D. students David Evangelista and Xianjin Yang won best paper awards at international conferences this summer for their work in mean-field game theory. Evangelista's paper focused on solutions for stationary mean-field games with congestion, while Yang's paper developed numerical methods for homogenization problems. The awards were presented at the 18th International Symposium on Dynamic Games and Applications in France and the 12th American Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Conference in Taiwan. Why it matters: The recognition highlights KAUST's strength in applied mathematics and computational science, specifically in the emerging field of mean-field games with applications across various domains.
KAUST Ph.D. student Chiheb Ben Hammouda won the best poster award at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Conference on Financial Mathematics & Engineering (FM19) for his work on option pricing under the rough Bergomi model. The winning poster, titled "Hierarchical adaptive sparse grids and quasi-Monte Carlo for option pricing under the rough Bergomi model," details research carried out under the supervision of KAUST Professor Raul Tempone. The research group designed new efficient numerical methods for pricing derivatives under the rough Bergomi model by combining smoothing techniques. Why it matters: This award highlights KAUST's growing expertise in financial mathematics and its contribution to solving complex problems in the field using advanced numerical methods.
KAUST alumnus Khalid A. Al-Jabr, who received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from KAUST in 2014, is a reliability engineering specialist at Saudi Aramco's Consulting Services Department. Al-Jabr helped establish the Saudi Aramco Corrosion Management Hub and improve reliability culture within the company. In 2018, he received the Engineering Excellence Award from the Saudi Council of Engineers for his achievements. Why it matters: The recognition of KAUST alumni in key industrial roles highlights the university's contribution to developing talent and expertise for Saudi Arabia's strategic sectors.
KAUST Professor J. Carlos Santamarina and postdoctoral fellow Junghee Park received the 2019 Tarek Al-Kasabi Award for Excellence in Civil Engineering in Saudi Arabia. The award, administered by King Saud University, recognizes outstanding contributions to civil engineering within the Kingdom. Santamarina and Park were nominated by Dr. Abdullah Almajed from King Saud University and received a plaque, certificate, and a cash prize of SAR 100,000. Why it matters: Recognition of KAUST faculty highlights the university's contribution to civil engineering research and development in Saudi Arabia.
This is an announcement from KAUST. It encourages people to apply to KAUST. The announcement also mentions the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Why it matters: Routine announcements like this help increase awareness of KAUST as a leading research university.