Fifteen postdoctoral fellows from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) were recognized as the 2014 SABIC Postdoctoral Fellowship Awardees at a ceremony held at the KAUST campus in Thuwal on Wednesday. This is a fourth year of fellowships as part of the company’s support for the university’s academic innovative research efforts.

KAUST President Jean-Lou Chameau and SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) EVP, technology and innovation Ernesto Occhiello congratulated the winners and ceremony attendees, which included senior management from both organizations.

The winning research topics were selectively chosen to address SABIC-KAUST long-term research strategies. The postdoctoral fellow selections for this year are: Shawkat Aly, Ester Domingo, Robin Chrystie, Riya Bose, Narendra Kurra, Laura Falivene, Peng Li, Raju Dey, Yipei Shi, Iurii Ivanov, Ali Thabet, Mohammed Khan, Salim Bougouffa, Altanbadralt Sharkhuu and Galina Printyspar.

The postdoctoral fellows will be conducting research in several areas of interest to SABIC, including nanomaterials, catalysis, novel polymer synthesis and computational modeling.

Occhiello said: “SABIC is committed to a long-term successful association with KAUST. With innovation lying at the heart of SABIC’s 2025 strategy, we continue to plan for increased collaboration with KAUST to develop technologies that could not only drive our competitiveness, but yield significant societal benefits as well.”

Chameau added: “The SABIC-KAUST collaboration continues to deepen and foster breakthrough innovation in several research areas critical both to the company as well as the country. We are proud to join together with SABIC to continue leading a successful industry-academia collaboration within the Kingdom.”

KAUST VP Research Professor Jean Frechet said: “The scientific problems faced by society today require that industry and academia find newer ways of collaborative research. With SABIC’s support, we are moving forward on two fronts - innovations in science and novel ways of collaboration.”