Principal Investigator

Prof. Pascal Saikaly

Professor, Environmental Science and Engineering

Research Interests: wastewater treatment and reuse, microbial electrochemistry, Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process, Aerobic Granular Sludge, water reuse, Resource recovery, Electromicrobiology, microbial chain elongation

Research Scientists

Krishna Katuri, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist

Research Interests: Electromicrobiology, Electrochemical membrane bioreactors, Molecular microbial ecology, Bioreactor design

Dario Shaw, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Microbial ecology of wastewater, Environmental microbiology, Bioremediation, Molecular biology techniques

Postdoctoral Fellows

Sarvajith Manjunath, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral fellow

Research Interests: Microbial biotechnology, Aerobic Granular Sludge, Wastewater treatment technologies, Microbial ecology of engineered systems

Hari Ananda Rao, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Electromicrobiology, Microbial ecology, Microbial interactions, Waste to resources, Biocorrosion, Wastewater treatment technologies

Ph.D. Students

Mohammed Alomari

Ph.D. Student

Mohammed Bader

Ph.D. student

Research Interests: Microbial electrolysis cell, Bioaugmentation, Geobacter sulfurreducens

Julian Tobon Gonzalez

Ph.D. student

Research Interests: Wastewater treatment technologies, Solid waste treatment technologies, Nutrient recovery, Bioreactors, Bioprocesses, Modelling

Lucia Ruiz Haddad

Ph.D. student

Research Interests: Aerobic Granular Sludge, Metagenomics, Metatranscriptomics, Microbial ecology

Maksim Sysoev

Ph.D. Student

Olena Samonina

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Microbial ecology, Electromicrobiology, Microbial wastewater treatment, Aerobic Granular Sludge, Biofilms, Bioreactors

Gabriel Gomes

Ph.D. Student

Research Staff

Yogesh Singh, Ph.D.

​Research Specialist

Research Interests: Water quality (analysis, treatment and monitoring), Seawater desalination (SWRO/MD), Pretreatment, Membrane fouling/scaling

Alumni

Mohammed Ali, Ph.D.

Now at Trinity College Dublin (Professor)

Jiajie Xu, Ph.D.

Now at Ningbo University (Professor)

Bin Bian, Ph.D.

Now at Penn State University (Professor)

Rodrigo Jiménez Sandoval, Ph.D.

Now CEO of Polymeron

Nouf Aljarallah

Now at Bain & Company (Senior Associate Consultant)

Srikanth Peddireddy, Ph.D.

Now at University of Exeter (Research Fellow)

Shafeer Kalathil, Ph.D.

Now at Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK (Professor)

Manal Alqahtani, Ph.D.

Now at Aramco (Field Compliance Coordinator)

Suman Bajracharya, Ph.D.

Now at Lulea University of Technology (Research Scientist)

David Morgado Pereira

Now at Lonza (Bioprocess Engineer)

Gerald Matar, Ph.D.

Now at Nalco Water, France. (Environmental and Process Engineer)

Noura Shehab, Ph.D., (PMP®)

Now at NEOM (Research and Innovation Manager)

Maria Alkurdi

Now at KAUST Beacon Development (Environmental Associate)

Zhongwei Wang, Ph.D.

Now at Shanghai Water and Environment Technology Co., Ltd.

Co-founder at Environmental Technology Co., Ltd.

Zahid Ur Rehman
Veer Raghavulu Sapireddy, Ph.D.

Now at Suviro Life Science Pvt, India (Scientist)

Visiting Students

  • Shaima Iskandarani from University College London, UK – Visiting Student (June 2023 – June 2024)
  • Gabriel Gomes from State University of Western Paraná, Brazil – VSPR Internship (Spring 2023)
  • Nourah Bandar AlSaud – Visiting Student from KSA (Summer 2022)
  • Munira Khalid Aldarwish – KAUST Gifted Saudi Program (Summer 2021)
  • Joud Osama – Saudi Research Science Institute (Summer 2021)
  • David Pereira from Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Portugal – VSPR Internship (Feb 2020 – Aug 2020)
  • Mohammad Tawfiq – Saudi Research Science Institute (Summer 2019)
  • Danah Altassan – Saudi Research Science Institute (Summer 2018)
  • Aislinn Francesca Jia Lin Dunee from UCLA, USA – VSPR Internship (2016)
  • Muneera Khalid AlDrweesh – Saudi Research Science Institute (Summer 2016)
  • Jules Bussiere from École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier, France – VSPR Internship (2015)
  • Reema Alzaidi – Saudi Research Science Institute (Summer 2015)
  • Maya Kurdi – Saudi Research Science Institute (Summer 2014)
  • Sundus Baroom – Saudi Research Science Institute (Summer 2012)
  • Yara Abdulrahman Alshwairikh – Saudi Research Science Institute (Summer 2011)
  • Duaa Tashkandi – Saudi Research Science Institute (Summer 2011)