# Mohamed-Slim Alouini

Mohamed-Slim Alouini is the Al-Khwarizmi Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the holder of the UNESCO Chair in Education to Connect the Unconnected at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia. His research interests include the modeling, design, and performance analysis of wireless, satellite, and optical communication systems. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and OPTICA (formerly known as the Optical Society of America (OSA).

## Early life and education

He was born in Tunis, Tunisia. In 1993, he obtained the Diplome d'Ingenieur and Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies (DEA) in Electronics from École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (Télécom Paris) and Université Pierre et Marie Curie (now Sorbonne Université - Campus Pierre et Marie Curie) in Paris, France respectively. In 1995, he received the Masters of Sciences in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta in United States and in 1998 he obtained his PhD in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, California, United States. He finally obtained in 2003 the Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) degree from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.

## Career

He joined King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in 2009 as a founding professor. He had served as a faculty member from 1998 to 2004 in the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. He also worked in the Texas A & M University at Qatar, Education City, Doha between 2004 and 2009.

## Fellowship and Membership

He is a Fellow of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) (2025), International Science Council (ISC) (2023), World Wireless Research Forum (WWRF) (2022), The UNESCO World Academy of Science (TWAS) (2022), Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) (2021), OPTICA (formerly known as the Optical Society of America (OSA) (2021), Academia Europaea (AE) (2019), the European Academy of Science and Arts (EASA) (2019), African Academy and Science (AAS) (2018), and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (2008).

## Awards

He received the 2024 IEEE Communication Society Technical Committee on Space and Satellite Communication (SSC) Distinguished Service Award and the 2022 UNESCO TWAS Award in Engineering Sciences. In 2021, he received the IEEE Communications Society Education Award. In the same year, he was awarded the TAKREEM Foundation Award in the “Scientific and Technological Achievement” Category, and the Obada Prize. He won the Kuwait Prize in Applied Sciences and the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society James Evans Avant Garde Award in 2020, the IEEE Communication Society Communication Theory Technical Committee (CTTC) Achievement Award in 2019, the Inaugural Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Science, Technology, & Innovation Achievement Award in Engineering Sciences, Astana, Kazakhstan in 2017, the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers in Engineering Sciences Archived July 27, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Amman, Jordan and the IEEE Communication Society Wireless Communications Technical Committee (WTC) Recognition Award in 2016. He received university-level awards at the University of Minnesota (McKnight Land-Grant Professorship - 2001), Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMU-Q Faculty Excellence Award - 2009), and KAUST (CEMSE Faculty Service Award - 2016). He received in 1999 (i) the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award and (ii) the Charles Wilts Prize for outstanding independent research leading to a PhD in electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He is co-recipient throughout his academic career of best paper/poster/video awards/prizes in 33 journals/conferences/challenges and he has served as distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Communication Society, the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, the IEEE Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society, and the IEEE Photonics Society.