By David Murphy 

KAUST Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Husam N. Alshareef has been elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Professor Alshareef will be officially inducted during the Fellows Induction Ceremony on June 27, 2023, during the NAI 12th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. 

The NAI Fellow designation is the most prestigious professional distinction for academic inventors. Currently, 1,567 Fellows worldwide are associated with the program representing more than 300 prestigious universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes.   

Established in 2010, the NAI Fellows Program honors and selects academic inventors as fellows based on the number and significance of their patents. 

According to the NAI Fellows Selection Committee, Alshareef was chosen for induction “hav[ing] demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development and welfare of society.”   

Of his election, he said, “I am very proud to receive this honor as a KAUST faculty member. It is truly gratifying to receive such international recognition for the inventions that I have made throughout my career, several of which entered volume production at U.S. semiconductor chip makers like Micron Technology and Texas Instruments.” 

A career of leading scientific contributions  

Alshareef is the principal investigator of the KAUST Functional Nanomaterials & Devices Laboratory, with a research focus on developing nanoscale materials for electronics and energy applications. His group is engaged in synthesizing advanced nanomaterials and, increasingly, their relevant practical applications in the Kingdom.  

“In the past few years, my group has significantly impacted KAUST’s academic rankings, which was essential for the University to prove its academic excellence. It is now my goal to replicate this success going forward, focusing on the Kingdom’s practical needs.”   

Alshareef is the author of nearly 520 journal and conference publications and 80 issued patents. Earlier this year, he was recognized for the fourth consecutive year by the Web of Science and Clarivate Analytics as a highly cited researcher in material science, placing him in the top 1% of worldwide researchers in terms of research output. He was also elected as a Fellow of the UK Institute of Physics. 

In recent years, the highly respected researcher has received a series of notable accolades. 

Alshareef’s scientific contributions to energy storage won him the Kuwait Prize in 2018. That same year, he was also named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. 

In 2019, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society for, according to an APS statement, “contributions to the development of semiconductor materials and processes for electronics and energy applications, including deployment in volume production.”