Dr. Hassan Arafat is the Director of the Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology (CMAT) and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where he is working since 2010.
His current research interest is in membrane-based desalination, with focus on third-generation desalination technologies such as membrane distillation (MD) and the development of novel membranes for water applications. He initiated a research trend on sustainable desalination, which integrates multiple multidisciplinary tools to enhance the prospects of deploying desalination, with the aim of achieving water and food security. The concepts behind this trend are captured in his book: Desalination Sustainability: A Technical, Socioeconomic and Environmental Approach.
Dr. Arafat received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati (Ohio, USA) in 2000 and a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Jordan in 1996. From 2000 to 2003, he worked at Argonne National Laboratory (Illinois, USA), developing processes for nuclear waste treatment at the United States Department of Energy (DOE) sites. Between 2003 and 2010, he was a faculty member of the Chemical Engineering Department at An-Najah University (Palestinian Territory). Between 2009 and 2012, he served as an adjunct associate professor of the Biological Engineering Department at Utah State University (Utah, USA) and in 2010 he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts, USA) as a visiting professor for six months.
Dr. Arafat is a recipient of prestigious research fellowships by the US National Academy of Science (USA), the Open Society Foundation (USA), and DAAD (Germany). Through his career thus far, he supervised more than 45 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students and received 25 grants, exceeding $14.5 million. His research was published in 240+ book chapters, journal papers, and conference presentations, in addition to two US patents and 55 keynote and invited talks worldwide. Among other honors, Dr. Arafat received the Khalifa Award for Education, presented by the President of the UAE, the Mohammad Bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Excellence, presented by the Prime Minister of the UAE, the United States Department of Energy Secretarial Honor Award, the Mondialogo Engineering Award by Daimler AG and UNESCO, and the University of Cincinnati Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship.
