Dr. Tahar Laoui is currently a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at the University of Sharjah, UAE. Prior to this appointment, he was a Professor in Materials & Manufacturing Engineering in Mechanical Engineering Dept. at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA in 1990. His research interests are membrane for water treatment and desalination using nanotechnology, structure-property processing relationships in composite materials, and rapid prototyping technologies.

For the past several years, he has conducted research in joint collaboration with colleagues from Mechanical Engineering Dept. at MIT, USA, on the development of inorganic membranes for water treatment and water desalination by exploring techniques to investigate and understand the transport of water molecules and ions through macro- and nano-structured materials such as zeolites, alumina-based ceramics, carbon nanotubes and graphene.