AMPM Faculty promotions

05 June, 2017

faculty-promo-2017

Pictured (from left to right), front row: Mohamed Eddaoudi, Taous-Meriem Laleg-Kirati, KAUST President Jean-Lou Chameau, Nikos Hadjichristidis, Xianglang Zhang. Second row: Ying Wu, Vice President for Academic Affairs James Calvin, Yu Han, Muhammad Hussain, Marc Genton, Lain-Jong (Lance) Li. Back row: Dean Yves Gnanou, Mani Sarathy, Dean Mootaz Elnozahy, Dean Pierre Magistretti. Photo by Ginger Lisanti.

On the evening of May 8, ten KAUST faculty members were promoted at a gala dinner ceremony. KAUST President Jean-Lou Chameau and members of University leadership honored the accomplishments of the faculty by announcing the individual promotions to the distinguished professor, professor and associate professor designations.

"Congratulations to our promoted faculty. Through your endeavors and discoveries, the University's reputation for excellence continues to be elevated both locally and globally," stated Chameau. "Your achievements, as well as the caliber of talent in our academic community, continue to shape KAUST as a destination for passion, curiosity, innovation, and impact."

Mohamed Eddaoudi, chemical science—recognized as a distinguished professor

KAUST Professor Mohamed Eddaoudi is regarded as one of the world leaders in the field of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are used to make significant strides in the realm of energy storage and environmental control. Eddaoudi was the first to prove that MOFs can be permanently porous, after which he introduced another seminal contribution, disclosing that MOFs with unprecedented surface areas can be easily activated. With his team at the KAUST Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center (AMPM), Eddaoudi has produced a range of innovations, including a novel battery-electrode separator using metal-organic materials for performance improvements in batteries and electrochemical cells.

Eddaoudi has received many honors and awards in his scientific career, including the National Science Foundation Career Award and selection as one of the Talented Young Crystallographers in the world. He has been selected as a Highly Cited Researcher and as one of the world's most influential scientific minds by Thomson Reuters IP & Science for the last three years.

Yu Han, chemical science—promoted to the rank of professor

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KAUST Professor Yu Han received his Ph.D. in inorganic synthesis and preparative chemistry from Jilin University in 2003. He joined KAUST in 2009 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 2011. Han is a solid-state chemist whose scientific interests and expertise lie in the design of novel porous and nanostructured materials. His research focuses on synthesis and characterization of novel mesoporous and microporous materials. Finely tuned porous materials find widespread use in heterogeneous catalysis and gas separation applications. His group synthesized the first tri-continuous mesoporous material that possesses three identical interpenetrating channels.

Han is also a specialist in transmission electron microscopy (TEM), a necessary tool to elucidate the highly complicated nanostructures of polymeric and inorganic porous materials. He publishes in top scientific journals, such as Science, Nature Materials, JACS and Energy and Environmental Science. He was listed as Asian Rising Star at the 15th Asian Chemical Congress and was awarded the Cheung Kong Scholar award in 2016 by the Chinese Ministry of Education.