Mohamed Salah GHIDAOUI 招捷達

Mohamed Ghidaoui, born on 24th of August 1964 in Tunisia, received BASc, MASc and PhD all in Civil Engineering from University of Toronto, Canada, in 1989, 1991 and 1993, respectively. Since July 1993, he has been with the Department of Civil Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST), where he is now a Chair Professor. He has spent his sabbatical leave at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA and the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Canterbury, NZ. In 2006 he was a Visiting Erskine Fellow at University of Canterbury, NZ.

Ghidaoui is the recipient of the Arthur Thomas Ippen Award, which is the most prestigious prize which IAHR can bestow on a member of water engineering and science community (see IAHR website). His other research awards include Albert Berry Memorial Award, American Water Works Association; runner-up for the Hilgard Award for best paper, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); and Erskine Fellow; University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is the Associate Editor of the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE; Journal of Hydraulic Research, IAHR; Journal of Hydro-environment Research, IAHR-APD, and served in the advisory board of the Journal of Hydroinformatics. He publishes in leading international journals such as Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE; Journal of Hydraulic Research, IAHR; Journal of Fluid Mechanics; Physics of Fluids; and Computational Physics. His PhD students won top awards and secured jobs and or further studies in top universities, institutes and companies. His research on water hammer with his former PhD student, Zhao Ming, resulted in the John F. Kennedy student paper competition award (third place) at the 29th International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering & Research Congress, September 2001. His research on defect detection in conduits with his PhD student, Huanfeng Duan, resulted in PhD Research Excellence Award, HKUST, 2011 and an article at the final of the John F. Kennedy student paper competition award, 33rd IAHR Congress, Canada. Three of his other students were also finalists in John F. Kennedy student paper competition award at the 30th International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering & Research Congress, August 2003.

Ghidaoui held major offices and positions in learned societies. He served two terms as the chairperson of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering & Research (IAHR)-Hong Kong Chapter and was one of its founders. He is a member of IAHR and ASCE. He is the Chair of Fluid Mechanics, IAHR. He served as a member of Council Nominating Committee, elected by the IAHR Council to be 1 of 8 members from around the world (2008-2009). He delivered keynote and invited talks at leading conferences and institutes, including the Arthur Thomas Ippen Lecture at the IAHR world congress in Venice, Italy, 2007. He served as a member of the fluid mechanics section IAHR, a member of the advisory group on unsteady friction and fluid-structure interaction, Dundee, UK. He served in the office of external relations/publicity, as well as the office of Student Liaison, IAHR-HK. He served in the executive committee of Centre of Scientific Computation, HKUST. He chaired the shallow flows symposium, IAHR, which was held at HKUST in 2008. He chaired two major tracks at IAHR 2013 congress. He organized the IAHR Gerhard Jirka Summer School for Fluid Mechanics in 2014. He served as a member of the organization committee and as an advisory board member in a number of international conferences. He has been an invited speaker at universities, organizations and international conferences. He is a full member of IAHR and a full member of ASCE.

Ghidaoui has been awarded 43 grants worth over HK$100 million: 32 as PI (HK$50 million), 8 as Co-I from local sources (HK$4 million) and 3 from international sources (HK$56 million). He leads the theme-based project Smart UWSS worth HK$33.225 million for the period 2015-2020 (see http://suwss-dev.ust.hk/).

Ghidaoui led a number of key administrative offices and tasks at the departmental, school and university levels. He served as the chairman of the Senate Undergraduate Studies Committee for 9 years. He also served as the Chairman of the Senate Research Committee for 8 years. He served as a member of the university court for three years. He chaired the university Sub-Group on 334 Degree Requirements and Regulations, and ad-hoc committees for the adjudication of Research Project Competition (annual budget of HK$15 million) and Research Equipment Fund Competition (annual budget of HK$15 million). He serves/served in numerous other key university committees such as 334 university task force, HKUST-JSSD Joint School Academic Planning Committee, Member of Steering Committee of Division of Environment, Michael Gale Medal panelist, search committees for president, deans and heads, Member of Review Task Force on Institute for the Environment Terms of Reference. He was elected senate member 3 times and served for 9 years, he served/is serving as a member of 13 university committees, served as a member of 7 task forces and committees for the School of Engineering, chaired 3 departmental committees and coordinated 2 and is serving/served in 15 departmental committees and coordinated.

He received the Teaching Excellence Appreciation award from the School of Engineering, HKUST, in 1996 and 2001. He maintains high teaching rating in all his courses. He played a leading role in the development of 3-3-4 vision and curriculum. He served in the 3-3-4 task force and chaired the task force on degree requirement and regulations. As a chair of CUS, he plays a key role in all facets of undergraduate education: courses, curriculum, degree requirement and regulations, student regulations, etc. The CUS which he chairs is in charge of all developments related to 334, including new curricula, programs, regulations, entry requirement, degree requirement etc. Currently, he is leading the development of the undergraduate program on Sustainable Energy for HKUST-JSSD.

Ghidaoui has been active in the local academic and engineering community. He was a founding member of IAHR-Hong Kong Chapter. He has helped organize a number of international conferences in Hong Kong. He served as consultant to government and consultants. He has taught a number of courses to local engineers. As a chair of IAHR-HK, he organized forums, seminars, courses, field trips and social events to the local academic and engineering community and introduced the student chapter of IAHR-HK. He serves as an external examiner to Department of Civil Engineering, Chu Hai College, Hong Kong.

Ghidaoui speaks three languages: English, French and Arabic. His hobbies include soccer, traveling and reading history books on science and engineering as well as popular science books.

Read more about Prof Ghidaoui from HKUST Development and Alumni Office's Impact Stories: Smart Way to Urban Water Supply System Sustainability – Real-time Monitoring and Defect Detection