Author: The Szekely Group

We received an invitation to attend the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) – Youth Green Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. SGI is a national initiative to accelerate climate action and enhance the quality of life by utilizing the expertise of ministries and private sector entities and foreign governments. It’s a part of the Vision 2030 targeting climate change, the greatest challenge of our generation. The event took place on the 23rd of October, 2021.

As part of this great opportunity, I was able to represent the voice of KAUST at the Summit along with my fellow students from KAUST. I think all youth, especially myself, appreciated the fact that many ambitious goals were announced with the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI). I can definitely envision a future where I can contribute to the mitigation of both local and global environmental issues. Hopefully, this initiative will inspire both global and Saudi Arabian youth to work toward a greener and more sustainable future. – says Fadhilah Aluraiei, a senior PhD student in our group

I learned much about the enormous efforts by the kingdom leaders to include us in decision-making in a variety of sectors, including energy, water, the environment, and education. The talk presented by Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud inspired me greatly. The youth were advised to continue learning, asking questions, presenting our vision, and raising their voices. – says Nawader Alquadhi, a junior PhD student in our group

Undoubtedly, Saudi Arabia is in the front row to lead the global green movement in the coming decades.

It was a pleasure to have Hala Algallaf, a Saudi high school student, who spent her six-weeks research internship in our lab. Her internship was supported by the Saudi Research Science Institute (SRSI) program. During her stay, Hala was introduced to the electrochemical synthesis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) working under the guidance of Dr Rifan Hardian. Hala investigated the effects of various reaction parameters, such as applied voltage and reaction time on the quality of the synthesized MOFs. During this relatively short time, Hala did an amazing job, and gained hands-on practical experience both in the lab and through science communication. She successfully presented her results in front of the KAUST faculty panel, and we are proud of her achievement to get the Top Presenter Award. Well done, Hala!

Check out our new article on electrospun nanofibrous membranes from ion exchange polymers to snare textile dyes from wastewater. The article is part of a special issue edited by Profs Amir Razmjou, Vicki Chen and Matthias Wessling. I am glad that our cover art by Fuat Topuz was selected by the Advanced Materials Technologies journal! Congratulations to Levente, Fuat, Mahmoud, Abdulaziz for putting this work together in a successful UoM-KAUST collaboration.

Check out our new article on defining sulfonation limits of PEEK for energy-efficient dehumidification. The article was selected for the inside front cover of JMCA published by RSC. Congratulations to Faheem and Mahmoud, the first authors of the article, for putting this work together in a successful interdisciplinary collaboration with Profs Ng and Schwingenschlogl.

Check out our new article on scavenging organic micropollutants from water with nanofibrous hypercrosslinked cyclodextrin membranes solely derived from green resources. The article was selected for the front cover of the Chemical Engineering Journal published by Elsevier. Congratulations to Fuat Topuz, the first author of the article, for putting this work together in a successful interdisciplinary collaboration with Tibor Holtzl.

Many thanks to Heno Hwang for the illustration.