Sixteen years of work in industry allowed Assistant Professor Mahmoud Al-Hindi to bring together the seemingly separate worlds of industry and academia.

With the clear message that “working in industry is about ability to communicate correctly, work hard and in teams, understand the problems, and deliver timely solutions,” Al-Hindi joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering in September 2009 hoping to pass on his expertise in a place close to his heart. “My dad is an AUB alumnus,” he offered.

Al-Hindi would like students to know that “making it to the highest echelons of industrial organizations by personal endeavors is attainable.” Between 1993 and 2009 he did just that.   

Al-Hindi received his BS (’84) and MS (’85) in chemical engineering from the University of Leeds, UK, before going to Kuwait to work in oil and research until 1988, when he started his PhD in chemical engineering at Imperial College, London.

Just before writing the last chapter of his thesis, Al-Hindi put his work aside to gain over fourteen years of industrial experience with Veolia Water, a multinational water and wastewater services company, where he worked his way up from process engineer to project manager, to technical and commercial director, and finally to general manager. During his employment, Al-Hindi lived in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and ultimately the UAE.

During the last two years Al-Hindi was executive projects director for a large number of district cooling, desalination, water, and wastewater treatment projects in the UAE.

In the meantime, Al-Hindi picked up his thesis again, finally finishing and obtaining his PhD in 2000, leading to his later move to academia to reconnect with the technical aspects of chemical engineering.

A member of the International Desalination Association, the European Desalination Society, and the Institution of Chemical Engineers, Al-Hindi has focused his research in the fields of heat exchanger network synthesis and operation, process integration, desalination, and water reuse.

Married and the father of two, Al-Hindi still finds time to read fiction and news of current affairs, play football, listen to contemporary music, and engage in debates about current affairs with friends. Always motivated by his thirst for general knowledge, Al-Hindi summarizes his life’s wisdom with the advice: “Do unto others as you expect to be done unto you.”