Prof. Arafat received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati (Ohio, USA) in 2000. From 2000-2003, he worked as a researcher and project manager at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) (Illinois, USA). His research at ANL was focused on process development for nuclear waste treatment at DOE sites. Between 2003 and 2010, Dr. Arafat served as a faculty member at the Chemical Engineering Department at An-Najah University (Palestine). In 2010, he joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a visiting scholar for six months, after which he moved to Abu Dhabi (UAE) where he now works at Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. He is a recipient of several prestigious international awards and international research fellowships, including the USA Department of Energy (DOE) Secretarial Honor Award and the Mondialogo Engineering Award, awarded jointly by Daimler AG and UNESCO. He is also the recipient of 16 grants totaling USD $10M. He is an author of 70+ book chapters and peer-reviewed journal papers and 80+ conference papers. The focus of Dr. Arafat's research interests is on sustainable and autonomous desalination processes, the development of novel membranes for desalination and the development of sustainable solid waste management strategies. Dr. Arafat serves on the editorial board of many international peer- reviewed journals