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​Fahad Al-Khodairi is a Corporate Fellow at SABIC global research and application development centers since 2016, leading polymers R&D activities in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. At SABIC, he has worked as General Manager of Oil-to-Chemicals Technology (2013 – 2016), General Manager of Polymers SBU Technology Management (2009 – 2013), General Manager of R&D Polymers Research (2001 – 2009), PVC Technology Manager (1999 – 2001) and P&M Laboratories Manager (1997 – 1999). He has a strong experience and vast knowledge in petrochemical and chemical industry including strategy, research, acquisition, contracts and licensing management; managing research portfolio, setting tools and processes; value proposition and creation along with entire value chain needs. He chaired member of several affiliated boards and ex-member of GPCA. He is co-inventor of several patents, author and co-author of technical papers in reputable journals and a book chapter (The fatigue of hybrid composites) in Fatigue in Composites (Ed. Bryan Harris, CRC Press, 2003). He obtained MSc and PhD in Material Science from Brunel University London, UK (Fatigue of Unidirectional and Hybrid Composites).

Dr. Yudhanto is Research Scientist mainly working on mechanical properties and damage mechanism of composite materials. He is involved in various projects: continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic laminates for structural application (impact, in-situ characterization, micro/mesomechanics), electrical characterization and damage in 3D textile and pre-preg based composites, thermoplastic-based nanocomposites, interface tailoring of composite adhesively-bonded joints and actuator design for soft robots.

Gilles Lubineau is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Dean for PSE Faculty at KAUST.

He is principal investigator for Composites Lab (Mechanics of Composites for Energy and Mobility) previously known as COHMAS (COmposite and Heterogeneous Materials Analysis and Simulation, an integrated environment for composite engineering that he created in 2009 when joining KAUST).

Following his “aggregation” in theoretical mechanics, Pr. Lubineau earned a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (ENS-Cachan), France. Before joining KAUST, Pr. Lubineau was a faculty member at the École Normale Supérieure of Cachan, and a non-resident faculty member at the École Polytechnique, France. He also served as a visiting researcher at UC-Berkeley.

His fields of research include: integrity at short and/or long-term of composite materials and structures, inverse problems for the identifica­tion of constitutive parameters, multi-scale coupling technique, nano and/or multifunctional materials. He covers a wide expertise related to most fields of composite materials, with over 200 published papers in journal spanning from material science (Advanced Materials, Macro­molecules, etc..) all the way to theoretical mechanics (JMPS, CST, Scien­tific Reports) and applied maths (IJNME, CMAME, etc.).

He is also board member for various journals, including the Internation­al Journal of Damage Mechanics.

Prof. Lubineau is an elected Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts

TBC

Dr. Khaled Almuhammadi is a key member of the Non-Metallics Development Program in Saudi Aramco. Khaled holds PhD and Master degrees in Mechanical Engineering from KAUST. His research focuses on carbon fiber materials, nano-composites, and structural health monitoring of composite materials related to various industries. Khaled joined Saudi Aramco in 2006, and worked as a project engineer in Shaybah Expansion Project. Further, he worked as an inspection engineer in Yanbu Refinery. Khaled also worked as a technology engineer in the Inspection Department. Currently, Khaled is spearheading the Non-Metallics Project Management Office (PMO) that oversees the execution of  the Non-Metallics Corporate Initiative

Khalid Alblehed received the BEng and MEng from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2006 and Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia in 2010, respectively.

Also, he gained a PhD in metrology system design from University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK in 2016. He currently works in King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology as an Assistant Professor in the National Center for Aeronautical Technology.

His research interests are in the fields of high precision metrology, sensor and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems for composite aeronautic structures.

Majed A. Alrefae is an Assistant Professor at Yanbu Industrial College, Royal Commission Yanbu Colleges and Institutes. He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2018, MS from KAUST in 2013, and BS from KFUPM in 2008. He worked as a project engineer at SABIC from 2008 to 2010. At Purdue University, Majed optimized and characterized a custom-built scalable roll-to-roll plasma CVD system to deposit carbon nanostructures on various flexible substrates, including Cu foil and carbon fiber. Majed won the KAUST Seed Fund in 2012 and was the most improved Entrepreneurial Lead in the I-Corps Program in 2017 for commercializing carbon nanostructures. His research focus is on developing plasma processes to produce carbon nanostructures for energy and water desalination applications.

Eng. Muneer has large experience, around 30 years, in aircraft industry. He was born in Al-Madina, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In 1999, he obtained his bachelor and master degrees from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida, USA in the field of engineering and design of aircrafts. His excellence in the field of design of aircraft bodies from composite materials enabled spending 27 years working in USA for several leading aircraft companies.

Eng. Muneer has several leading positions in several companies such as:

• In last quarter of 2019, he was appointed by the public investment fund organization as the deputy-chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Saudi aircraft preparation and maintenance company (GDC Middle East), which is one of the public investment fund companies that was established to transfer aircraft industry to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• Also, he was appointed as deputy-chairman for Middle East Propulsion Company (MEPC), one of the economic balance program companies.
• He was appointed in USA by Boeing to design horizontal stabilizers for the aircraft (Boeing 787), Honda to design fuselage of Honda jet and Gulfstream for aircrafts to design winglet for aircraft (Gulfstream-G500/600).
• Among his biography in the field of designing aircrafts, he established two companies in USA to design aircraft and he also present a patent in the field.
• Upon his arrival to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2016, he was appointed at the Saudi Technology Development and Investment Company (TAQNIA), at which he established a factory for aircraft bodies at King Khaled international airport. Then, he moved to Saudi Arabia Military Industries (SAMI) Company to work as general director of air systems.

Dr. Pedro M. F. J. Costa is an Assistant Professor of the Materials Science and Engineering Program at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Principal Investigator of the Laboratory for Carbon Nanostructures (KAUST).

Previously, he held an Adjunct Assistant Professor position at the University of Aveiro (UA), Portugal, and co-founded a start-up, Graphene Crystal, Saudi Arabia. Before that, he was a Junior Research Group Leader at UA while also collaborating has an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow with the IFW-Dresden, Germany. Dr. Costa worked as a post-doctoral research associate at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan, and at the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK). His graduate studies were carried out under the supervision of Prof. Malcolm L. H. Green FRS, at the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, UK. He is a member of various acknowledged scientific societies such as the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the Royal Microscopical Society and the Materials Research Society. He is an active committee member of the RSC Interest Group – Chemical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Dr. Costa has co-authored numerous scientific papers and communications and he is a regular reviewer for major scientific journals in matters related to electron microscopy and carbon nanostructures. He has received several awards such as the Japan Carbon Award for Young Researchers and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers.

Presently, Dr. Costa’s research interests focus on carbon nanostructures, from synthesis to applications, and electron microscopy. He is engaged in understanding how to optimise the use of carbon-based materials in the fields of energy storage/conversion, gas uptake and civil engineering. Besides this, he also investigates metrology of carbon materials.