Dr. Lourdes Vega
Dr. lourdes vega Professor Director Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen (RICH) Acting Senior Director Petroleum Institute Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

Contact Information
lourdes.vega@ku.ac.ae

Biography

Prof. Lourdes F. Vega is a Full Professor in Chemical Engineering, Acting Senior Director of the Petroleum Institute, devoted to Sustainable Fuels, from a broad perspective, and Director and Founder of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen (RICH Center), focused on decarbonization, hydrogen and clean energy, at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Prof. Vega has developed her career between academia and industry. She obtained her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Seville, Spain (1992), in collaboration with the Chemical Engineering Department, University of Southern California, USA where she was a visiting scholar (1990-1992), from where she moved to Cornell University as a Postdoctoral Fellow (1992-1995), before joining Universitat Rovira I Virgili in Tarragona, Spain, where she held several positions in the Chemical Engineering Department and School of Chemical Engineering (1995-2003). In 2003 she moved to the National Research Council of Spain (CSIC), Materials Science Institute of Barcelona, as a Senior Research Scientist, until she joined Air Products in 2007, as the General Director of MATGAS, R&D Director of Carburos Metálicos and Technology Manager of Air Products and Chemicals for CO2, food and water treatment, also leading several projects related to hydrogen. She is the Founder and COE of Alya Technology & Innovation (Alyatech). In 2016 she joined the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, now part of Khalifa University of Science and Technology as the Joint Chair Professor of the Gas Research Center.

With more than 240 publications, 6 patents under exploitation and the launch of several commercial products, she is an internationally recognized expert in molecular thermodynamics, clean energy and sustainable products, focused on CO2 capture and utilization, hydrogen production, storage, transportation and utilization, sustainable cooling systems, and water treatment. She is listed top 2{0961db0d5220b4955a3f07ef234db6dc96890fe8a6be6f8a7c66584c2fe2ed1b} most cited scientist in Chemical Engineering (both career-long scientist and single year) Mendeley, DOI: 10.17632/btchxktzyw.2

The impact of her work on bridging fundamental science to industrial applications focused on environmental applications, has been acknowledged by the reception of several prestigious awards, including, among others: the 2010 Physicist of Excellence Award, from Collegiate of Physicists of Spain, highlighting the work of physicists who have reached a level of excellence in their profession, the 2013 Award of the BBVA Foundation and Spanish Royal Society of Physics, in Physics, Innovation and Technology, granted by “the outstanding and original manner that she managed to bring physics to the industrial world”, the highly reputed Mohammed Bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Distinguishment received in 2020 for her contributions in clean energy and sustainable products, the election as a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in 2021, awarded to members in recognition of significant professional accomplishments and contributions in engineering and the election of a Corresponding Academic at the Royal Society of Science of Spain in 2023.

Prof. Vega is a Member of the Emirates Scientist Council, and the Lead of the Advisory Board on Engineering and Technology in the UAE. She is an Independent Member of the Board of Directors of ERCROS, SA (chemical company), and Canal de Isabel II, SA (water company) in Spain, as well as a Member of the Scientific Board of the EPSRC "Frontier Engineering" Centre for Nature Inspired Engineering (CNIE), in London, UK and of the Catalan Institute for Energy Research (IREC), in Barcelona, Spain. She served as the Coordinator of the Scientific Committee designing the strategic plan for the newly created National Center for Research in Energy Storage, (Cáceres, Spain). 

She is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Molecular Liquids (Elsevier, IF 6.7) and serves in the advisory board of several other journals. Prof. Vega is also the President and Founder of the Association of Spanish Scientists and Researchers in the UAE (ACIEAU). 


Education
  • Postdoctoral Associate, Chemical Engineering. Cornell University. USA, 1992-1995
  • PhD in Physics, University of Seville, Spain. In collaboration with Chemical Enginering, University Southern Calofornia, USA., 1992
  • BSc in Physics (5 years degree), Fundamental Physics. University of Seville, Spain, 1988

Teaching
  • Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics I (CHEG455)
  • Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics II (CHEG230)
  • introduction to hydrogen technologies and applications (CHEG360)
  • Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics (CHEG630)
  • Molecular Thermodynamics (CHEG750)

Affiliated Research Institutes/Centers
  • Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen
  • Petroleum Institute

Research
Research Interests
  • CO2 capture (materials and processes) and utilization
  • Clean hydrogen production
  • Hydrogen storage and transportation
  • Hydrogen utilization and sustainable fuels
  • Sustainable cooling (low Global Warming Potential Refrigerants)
  • Molecular thermodynamics, computational materials, multiscale modeling
  • Design of 2D and 3D materials for energy applications through computational modeling and artificial intelligence tools


Research Staff and Graduate Students:

Staff
Dr. Daniel Bahamon Garcia Senior Research Scientist
Dr. Ismail Alkhatib Post Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Yuting Li Post Doctoral Fellow
Reem Salem Mohammed Al Sakkaf Research Engineer
Hassan Ahmed Salih Hussein Research Engineer
Dr. Samar B Al Jitan PostDoctoral Fellow
Students
Seba Alareeqi PhD student
Abdelateef Mohammed Adam Abdelrhman PhD student
Sawsan Ahmed Ali PhD student