Professor at QF partner Texas A&M at Qatar elected a fellow at the AIChE

Image of Dr. Nimir Elbashir

Dr. Nimir Elbashir, a professor at Qatar Foundation partner university Texas A&M University at Qatar, has been honored with the prestigious status of Fellow of The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), a global professional society of more than 60,000 chemical engineers in 110 countries.

Fellow is AIChE's highest grade of membership and is achieved only through election by the AIChE Board of Directors. According to the AIChE, this honor reaffirms the high esteem with which colleagues and peers view Elbashir’s distinctive professional achievements and accomplishments. 

Elbashir holds a joint appointment as a professor of chemical engineering and petroleum engineering at Texas A&M at Qatar. He is the director of Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Gas and Fuels Research Center, a major research center that involves 30 professors from both Texas A&M University flagship campus in College Station, Texas (USA), and the Qatar campus. He also served as the chair of the ORYX Gas-to-Liquid Excellence Program. 

“I am honored to be named a Fellow in this very prestigious organization, which includes the world's leading scientists from academia, industry and governmental organizations,” Elbashir said.

“I have enjoyed being an active member of AIChE since I was a Ph.D. student in 2001. I participated in building several initiatives besides chairing and organizing numerous conferences and symposiums for AIChE. I greatly appreciate my colleagues and the AIChE Board's recognition of my global contributions in research, teaching and service to the chemical engineering field.”   
The focus of Elbashir’s research activities is the design of advanced midstream and downstream natural gas processing units including reactors, catalysts and conversion processes to ultra-clean fuels and value-added chemicals. 

Along with his research team, Elbashir developed the CARGEN reactor technology. This technology is believed to be the first of its kind that processes natural gas (methane) and captured carbon dioxide to produce both syngas, a valuable precursor to numerous hydrocarbon feedstocks that drive Qatar’s economy, and high-quality solid carbon nanotubes. And unlike conventional processes, all without releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

He has received several awards during his time at Texas A&M at Qatar including the Faculty Excellence Award, Laboratory Safety Award, the Dean’s Leadership Award for Outstanding Service, the TEES Genesis Research Excellence Award and a Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching from the Texas A&M Association Former Students.

He has also established several unique global research collaboration models between academia and industry with research funds of several million dollars. He holds several U.S., European, Australian and international patents and has published a large number of scientific publications in the form of peer-reviewed journals, conference papers, technical industry reports, and invited and conference presentations.

Congratulating Elbashir on this achievement, Dr. César Octavio Malavé, dean of Texas A&M at Qatar, said, “This distinction is an indication of Dr. Elbashir’s scholarship and the impact he is having on the chemical engineering profession and industry. He is an inspiration to our students, colleagues and researchers alike, and we take immense pride in his remarkable achievements.”

AIChE, “the global home of chemical engineers,” is the world’s leading organization for chemical engineering professionals. AIChE has a breadth of resources and expertise in core process industries or emerging areas, such as translational medicine.