Zain Ali, the latest student to graduate from the Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, considers science as a path to understand the world and generate solutions to solve pressing problems. After earning his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and M.Sc. in Advanced Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham, Ali joined KAUST as a Ph.D. student to research membrane technology for gas and liquid-based industrial separations.
Recently, he successfully defended his thesis entitled 'Development of State of the Art Interfacially Polymerized Defect-Free Thin-Film Composite Membranes for Gas and Liquid Separations' under the supervision of Prof.
Ingo Pinnau and committee members Profs.
Yu Han,
Mohamed Eddaoudi and
Sandra Kentish.
“I focused on fabricating defect-free interfacially polymerized thin-film composite polyamide membranes and testing them for gas separations, desalination, and aqueous/organic nanofiltration applications. With the help of my supervisor and research group, we were able to develop industrially scalable, highly-selective membranes that we believe can have a real impact in the chemical separation industry,” he explains.
His ultimate goal as a researcher is to “contribute my share of knowledge to science and help in building real solutions to the problems we face today.” he notes.
Zain thanks Prof. Pinnau his guidance during his Ph.D. journey and adds: “Ingo Pinnau is an academic and industrial force in membrane technology. I have learned so much from him and the team he assembled. I feel very privileged to be graduating from his group.”
Congratulations Dr. Zain Ali on your accomplishment!
AMPM Center faculty and staff wish you a career full of success.
