Mohamed Eddaoudi

About

From Agadir to Thuwal

A chemist of porous materials: trained in Agadir and Paris, formed in Omar Yaghi’s group in Arizona and Michigan, and an independent investigator since 2002, in Tampa and now at KAUST.

Portrait of Mohamed Eddaoudi, smiling, in glasses and a dark jacket.
  1. Agadir1991
  2. Paris1992–1996
  3. Tempe and Ann Arbor1997–2002
  4. Tampa2002–2009
  5. Thuwal2009 –
011991Agadir

A scholarship to Paris

Eddaoudi completed a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Ibnou Zohr University in Agadir in 1991. A Moroccan government scholarship for the best bachelor’s graduate of that year took him to Paris for a doctorate.

021992–1996Paris

A doctorate with Anthony Coleman

At Denis Diderot University (Paris VII) he took a master’s degree in materials analysis (1992) and a PhD in chemistry (1996) under Anthony Coleman. The jury awarded its félicitations, the highest honor mention, given to the top tenth of each year’s doctoral graduates.

031997–2002Tempe and Ann Arbor

The early MOF years

He joined Omar Yaghi’s group as a postdoctoral fellow at Arizona State University and continued with Yaghi at the University of Michigan as a research associate. The 1999 MOF-5 paper and the 2002 isoreticular study date from these years.

042002–2009Tampa

His own program

At the University of South Florida he started his independent group. Recognition followed: a Presidential Young Faculty appreciation award (2003), faculty research achievement awards (2004, 2007), undergraduate teaching awards (2005, 2008) and an NSF CAREER Award (2006–2011). He became Professor of Chemistry in 2009.

052009 –Thuwal

Building a program at KAUST

He joined KAUST in 2009 (TWAS describes him as a founding faculty member), chaired the Chemical Science Program (2010–2017) and directed the Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center (2017–2024); he now chairs the platform that succeeded it. His first KAUST doctoral student, Ryan Luebke, graduated in 2014. A distinguished professorship since 2016 is now named for Ibn Alhaytham.

The people he trained

22 doctoral graduates

From the University of South Florida and KAUST, as listed in his CV. Current members are on the research group site.

  1. Jarrod Eubank2008
  2. Dorina Sava2009
  3. Farid Nouar2010
  4. Mohamed Alkordi2010
  5. Amy Cairns2010
  6. Ryan Luebke2014 · first at KAUST
  7. Hasnaa Moutaki2015
  8. Lubna Ashri2016
  9. Rasha G Abdul Halim2016
  10. Dalal Alezi2017
  11. Hao Jiang2018
  12. Chen Zhijie2018
  13. Ayalew Assen2018
  14. Valeriya Chernikova2018
  15. Zeynabou Thiam2021
  16. Norah Alsadun2022
  17. Sheng Zhou2022
  18. Maram Almalki2024
  19. Rawan Al Natour2026
  20. Salma Benzaria2026
  21. Xiting Yuan2026
  22. Taslim Melliti2026

Giving back

Building science in the region

  1. 2007Organizer of a symposium on hybrid inorganic–organic and nanostructured materials at the fourth Africa MRS meeting, Dar es Salaam.
  2. 2010Co-organizer of the first North African Crystallographic Conference, Casablanca.
  3. 2018–2025General Chair of the International Conference on Materials and Environmental Science (ICMES) in Morocco, seven editions held in Saidia, Agadir and elsewhere.
  4. 2020 –Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research (MAScIR), Rabat.
  5. 2024Opening plenary as an honorary president of the academia–industry forum at ENSAM Rabat.

Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences and of the Royal Society of Chemistry; Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher. Biographies, the full career timeline, honors and metrics are in the press kit.