Prof. Ghidaoui Elected IAHR Fellow
Prof. Mohamed Ghidaoui, the Chinese Estates Professor of Engineering, and Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been elected Fellow of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR). The Fellow grade is a newly introduced membership category of IAHR that recognizes long-standing members for their outstanding contributions to hydro-environment engineering and research and to the development of IAHR. Currently, less than 0.3% of members hold the Fellow status and the IAHR bylaws stipulate that no more than 3% of its members can hold the status of Fellow. Among the 17 inaugural Fellows, Prof. Ghidaoui is the only one from Hong Kong and one of the only two from Greater China. The fellowship was officially announced and presented during the 40th IAHR World Congress in Vienna on 24 August, 2023.
Founded in 1935, IAHR comprises engineers and water specialists from across the world endeavouring in the hydro-environmental sciences (from maritime hydraulics, eco-hydraulics, water resources development and management, to hydro-informatics). IAHR runs congresses, conferences, workshops and training courses, and disseminates a range of publications (journals, books, monographs, etc.) often in collaboration with international projects and organizations such as UNESCO, WMO, IDNDR, GWP, ICSU.
Prof. Ghidaoui is born in Tunisia and spent the first 18 years of his life there followed by 10 years in Canada. Hong Kong and HKUST have been his home since obtaining his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1993. In HKUST, he built a rich and successful academic career revolving around hydraulics, water resources and environmental fluid mechanics with focus on waves, flow stability and turbulence and their applications in open and closed conduits. He recently lead a theme-based project on smart urban water supply systems (Smart UWSS).
At HKUST, Prof. Ghidaoui was recognized with the prestigious honor of a named professorship when he was appointed Chinese Estates Professor of Engineering in 2017. He led a number of key administrative posts at the departmental, school and university levels, including serving as the chair of the Senate Research Committee and Senate Undergraduate Studies Committee. He received a HKUST Outstanding Faculty Award in 2017 and the School of Engineering’s Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award twice.
In HKUST, he led a number of key administrative posts at the departmental, school and university levels, including serving as the chair of the Senate Research Committee and Senate Undergraduate Studies Committee. Within the IAHR, Prof. Ghidaoui is Editor of its flagship journal Journal of Hydraulic Research and is served as its associate editor from 2001 to 2016. Between 2013 and 2018, he chaired IAHR’s Fluid Mechanics Committee, and, in addition to being a founding member, he chaired the IAHR Hong Kong Chapter. Outside the IAHR, Prof. Ghidaoui serves as an associate editor of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)’s Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, is an editorial board member of the Theoretical & Applied Mechanics Letters (TAML), the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and serves on the advisory board of the Journal of Hydroinformatics. Prof. Ghidaoui’s online lectures are on VIDEOS (iahr.org).
Prof. Ghidaoui was recognized with the prestigious honor of a named professorship when he was appointed Chinese Estates Professor of Engineering in 2017. He also received a HKUST Outstanding Faculty Award in 2017 and the School of Engineering’s Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award twice. He holds the prestigious IAHR’s Arthur Ippen Award which recognises a member who has demonstrated conspicuously outstanding ability, originality, and accomplishment in basic hydraulic research and/or applied hydraulic engineering. Prof. Ghidaoui is a fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). Prof. Ghidaoui’s online lectures including how to write research papers can be found in (https://www.iahr.org/video/clip?mid=12794&vid=87).
We extend our deepest admiration and congratulations to Prof. Ghidaoui for the very prestigious honour.
