​On Friday 14th December, KAUST honored the accomplishments of Class of 2018 at the University's ninth Commencement ceremony. Members of the University's Board of Trustees, including Board Chairman HE Khalid A. Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources; senior leadership; faculty; students; and the KAUST community came along with graduate students in one of the most special days in our academic calendar.

​On November 19, Rahul Shevate successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation entitled 'Isoporous Block Copolymer Membranes: Novel Modification Routes and Selected Application' under the supervision of AMPM Prof. Klaus-Viktor Peinemann. Rahul earned his B.SC. in Chemistry and M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry from Pune University in 2007 and 2009 respectively.

​A group of second-grade students from Garden Elementary School (GES) at KAUST visited AMPM Center to learn about the ongoing research in the center and its direct impact on the society. The center Director, Mohamed Eddaoudi welcomed the group and briefed the children on the importance of research in providing sustainable means to protect the environment, save energy by efficiently using our natural resources.

The AMPM center faculty, researchers, students, and staff congratulate our Director Mohamed Eddaoudi for his being listed as a highly cited researcher for the fifth year in a row.

From an early age, Liliana Perez Manriquez was interested to learn about different cultures, languages, and ways of life. It was during her senior year, studying Biological and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she attended a recruiting session and discovered KAUST. She felt that KAUST met all the requirements to develop her academic career and fulfill her personal motivations.

It has been an exciting few weeks for the AMPM research group, Smart Hybrid Materials (SHMs). Three of its brilliant Ph.D. students have successfully defended their Ph.D. dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Niveen Khashab.

On November 5, KAUST president, Dr. Tony Chan was warmly welcomed by AMPM center Director, Prof. Mohamed Eddaoudi and AMPM members during his first visit to the Center.

Removing the troublesome impurities of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from natural gas could become simpler and more effective using a metal-organic framework (MOF) developed at KAUST.

On October 4, Zhaohui Liu successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation entitled "Mechanistic Investigation into the Conversion of Methanol to Hydrocarbons by Zeolite Catalysts" under the supervision of AMPM Prof. Yu Han. Zhaohui earned his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Ocean University of China and M.Sc. in Chemistry from China Xiamen University in 2010 and 2013 respectively.

AMPM Center Director, Prof. Mohamed Eddaoudi is delighted to welcome Prof. Suzana Nunes, Professor of Chemical and Environmental Science and Engineering, as a member of the center. Certainly, Prof. Nunes will strengthen the liquid separation thrust in the Center. Her research program encompasses polymeric materials and their related membrane applications for the chemical and pharmaceutic industries.

​On September 10, Ayalew H. Assen successfully presented his Ph.D. thesis entitled 'Polynuclear Rare-earth (RE) based Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs): From Topological Exploration to Preparation of Tailor-made MOFs' under the supervision of AMPM Center Director Prof. Mohamed Eddaoudi and committee members Profs. Kazuhiro Takanabe (The University of Tokio), Osman Bakr (KAUST) and Guillaume Maurin (The Institute Charles Gerhardt Montpellier).

AMPM Center Prof. Klaus-Viktor Peinemann and Prof. Tom Wu team members Rahul Shevate, Md Azimul Haque, Faheem Hassan Akhtar and alumnus Luis Francisco Villalobos in collaboration with Prof. Tom Wu developed the first isoporous membrane-based humidity sensor. The sensor reported has one of the fastest response time towards the surrounding humidity change.

​A membrane made of porous carbon-fiber structures grown on a porous ceramic substrate is more efficient at filtering seawater than existing similar membranes. Engineered porous membranes could help recover freshwater from heavily polluted groundwater and seawater, which is of critical need in developing countries and arid environments like the Arabian Peninsula

AMPM Center Snr. Research Scientist, Dr. Youssef Belmabkhout has recently been honored with 2018 African Youth Award. This prestigious award recognizes his successful research in water, energy and environmental sciences.

AMPM Center members were active at 27th North American Membrane Society (NAMS) annual meeting in Lexington, Kentucky USA hosted by University of Kentucky and King Abdullah University of Science & Technology. NAMS is the premier Membrane Conference in the world bringing together researchers from industry, academia and government. AMPM Center Founding Director Prof. Ingo Pinnau was one of the three meeting chairs.

​AMPM alumni, Dr. Nasser Alaslai and Dr. Dalal Alezi, were recently featured on SBC, a new Saudi TV channel. The documentary is focused on Saudi talented young people.

​Valeriya Chernikova's talent was obvious at a young age. At only 15 years old, she was invited to leave her hometown Maykop in south Russia to study at Kolmogorov School one of the leading High Schools in Russia, associated with Lomonosov Moscow State University. Subsequently, she earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Physical Chemistry at this prestigious Institution.

Barbora Minichová enjoys her last days at KAUST before going back to her home country Slovakia. She is currently a Visiting Student at AMPM Center and worked seven months in Prof. Niveen Khashab' research group.

Yujiang Zhong successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation entitled “Study of Thermally Responsive Ionic Liquids for Novel Water Desalination and Energy Conversion Applications" under the supervision of Prof. Zhiping Lai, AMPM Center.

Innovating in science is a challenge! Tiara Puspasari, Ph.D. graduate at AMPM Center, knows it well. For five years she has been researching one of the most well-known polymers in the world - cellulose. She developed a new generation of cellulose membranes with many interesting properties and scalable for industry.