Faculty

Michael Berumen, Ph.D.

Center Director | Director of Saudi Aramco-KAUST Marine Environmental Research Center | Professor of Marine Science ​

Research Interests: Marine ecology, Coral reef ecology, Fish ecology, Fisheries, Ecosystems, Climate Change, Biodiversity, Conservation biology, Marine environment

Francesca Benzoni, Ph.D.

Associate Center Director | Associate Professor of Marine Science

Research Interests: Biodiversity, Coral reef ecology, Marine Habitat Mapping, Biogeography, Climate Change, Coastal Conservation, Bioconstruction, Taxonomy

Froukje M. van der Zwan, Ph.D.

Associate Center Director | Assistant Professor, Earth Science and Engineering

Research Interests: Igneous Petrology, Isotope Geochemistry, Petrography, Tectonics, Geology, Sediments, Geochemistry, Field Geology, Geological Processes, Geological Mapping

Burton Jones, Ph.D.

​​Professor of Marine Science​

Research Interests: Biological networks and interactions, Environment modeling, Marine ecology, Scientific Visualization, Fluid mechanics, Networks and wireless communications, Sensors

Carlos M. Duarte, Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor, Tarek Ahmed Juffali Research Chair in Red Sea Ecology

Research Interests: Marine ecology, Environment, Biodiversity, Conservation biology, Ecosystem ecology, Coastal ecology Aquaculture, Carbon, Seagrass Meadows, Climate Change

Daniele Daffonchio, Ph.D.

​Professor of Bioscience

Research Interests: Microbial ecology, Extreme environments, Deep sea brine pools, Mangrove ecosystem microbiology

Manuel Aranda Lastra, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marine Science

Research Interests: Genomics, Symbiosis, Epigenetics, Molecular biology

Raquel Peixoto, Ph.D.

​Associate Professor of Marine Science

Research Interests: Microbial ecology, Environmental microbiology, Marine Probiotics, Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMCs), Resilience, Coral restoration, Global change, ​Microbiology

Russell Rusty E. Brainard, Ph.D.

​Courtesy Professor of Marine Science

Research Interests: Coral reef ecosystems, Climate Change, Ocean acidification, Fisheries, Biodiversity, Ecology, Natural resource management, Sustainability

Susana Carvalho, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Practice of Marine Science

Research Interests: Biodiversity, Ecosystem functioning, Ecosystem health assessment, Climate Change, Non-native species, Ecosystem-based approaches, Nature-based solutions

Susana R. Agustí, Ph.D.

​​​​Professor of Marine Science​

Research Interests: ​​​Enviornment, Biodiversity, Water quality, Ecology, Climate Change, Marine ecology, Ecosystems, Marine biology, Aquatic ecosystems

Maggie Johnson, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Marine Science

Research Interests: Coral reef ecology, Global change biology, Ocean acidification, Ocean deoxygenation, Warming, Climate Change, Phycology, Calcifying algae, Crustose coralline algae

Michael Fox, Ph.D.

Assistant Research Professor

Research Interests: Marine ecology, Coral reef ecology, Climate Change, Oceanography, Biogeochemistry, Stable isotope ecology, Ecosystems

Xosé Anxelu G. Morán

Adjunct Associate Professor of Marine Science

Research Interests: Ecology, Climate Change, Marine ecology, Marine biology, Biogeochemistry, Aquatic ecosystems, Biological Oceanography, Phytoplankton

Christian Voolstra, Ph.D.

Adjunct Associate Professor of Marine Science

Research Interests: Environmental Genomics, Microbial ecology, Metaorganism, Coral symbiosis, Corals

Abdulkader M. Afifi, Ph.D.

Professor of Energy Resources and Petroleum Engineering

Research Interests: Regional geology of the Middle East, Geological evolution of the Red Sea, Neotectonics

Alexandre Soares Rosado, Ph.D.

Professor of Bioscience

Research Interests: Molecular microbial ecology, Environmental biotechnology, Genetic diversity, Extreme environments, Microbial ecology, Bioremediation

Basem Shihada, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Bernard Ghanem, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Deputy Director of AI Initiative at KAUST

Research Interests: Semantic analysis, UAV, Artificial intelligence, Machine learning

Boon S. Ooi, Ph.D.

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Charlotte Hauser, Ph.D.

Professor of Bioscience and Bioengineering

Research Interests: Chemistry, Biomedicine, Bioengineering, Nanotechnology

Eric Feron, Ph.D.

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Frans Van Buchem, Ph.D.

Professor of Energy Resources and Petroleum Engineering

Research Interests: Climate Change, Sea level fluctuations, Arabian Plate

Georgiy L. Stenchikov, Ph.D.

Professor of Earth Science and Engineering

Hildegard Westphal, Ph.D.

Visiting Faculty | Professor of Geology

Research Interests: Marine ecology, Pal-ecology, Carbonate Sedimentology, ​Plastic pollution

J. Carlos Santamarina, Ph.D.

Professor of Energy Resources and Petroleum Engineering

Khaled Salama, Ph.D.

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Associate Dean CEMSE

Research Interests: Sensors, Lab-on-a-chip, Antenna arrays, Nonlinear models, Micro-systems

Lukasz Jaremko, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Bioscience

Mariusz Jaremko, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Bioscience

Mohamed Elhoseiny, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

P. Martin Mai, Ph.D.

Professor of Earth Science and Engineering

Rod A. Wing, Ph.D.

Director of the Center for Desert Agriculture | Professor of Plant Science | Principal Investigator of the Wing Lab

Research Interests: Genetics, Genomics, evolutionary boilogy od crop plants and their wild relatives

Shinkyu Park, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Sigurjón Jónsson, Ph.D.

Professor of Earth Science and Engineering Chair

Takashi Gojobori, Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor of Bioscience | Acting Director of CBRC

Research Interests: Functional and comparative genomics, Marine Metagenomics, Synthetic biology, Bioenergy

Taous-Meriem Laleg-Kirati

Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research Interests: Control systems, Signal analysis, Environment modeling, Modeling

Thomas Finkbeiner, Ph.D.

Research Professor of Energy Resources and Petroleum Engineering

Research Interests: Geomechanics, Drilling, Well completion, Reservoir modeling, Full field simulation

Volker C. Vahrenkamp, Ph.D.

​​Professor of Energy Resources and Petroleum Engineering

Research Interests: Modern & Ancient Carbonates, Diagenesis, Chemostratigraphy, OAE's, Carbonate Reservoirs, Reservoir Modelling and Heterogenity, Geothermal Energy

Yasser O. Abualnaja

Associate Professor of Practice of Marine Science