Hicham Idriss is Fellow at SABIC Corporate Research & Development (CRD) at King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia and an Honorary Professor here at the Department of Chemistry. He received his undergraduate (BSc Biochemistry/Chemistry) and postgraduate (MSc Applied Chemistry, PhD Applied Chemistry/Materials Science and Dr. of Science/habilitation (Applied Chemistry/Materials Science) education from the University of Strasbourg (France). Prior to joining SABIC he held positions from 2008 to 2011 as Aberdeen Energy Futures Chair and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Aberdeen (UK) and from 1995 to 2008 as Associated Professor at the Department of Chemistry, the University of Auckland (New Zealand). His main research work is on the surface reactions of metal oxides both at the experimental and computational levels. In the last decade, he has been focusing his research on hydrogen production from renewables both by thermal and photocatalytic methods. He has about 230 papers and over 150 patents/patents applications. He is member of the editorial board of Catalysis, Structure and Reactivity; Applied Sciences “Environmental and Sustainable Science & Technology" and Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.