Prof. Ir. Dr. Abdul Wahab Mohammad has been announced as one of the winners of the Prince Sultan International Prize for Water, 3rd round awarded recently in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by the Crown Prince himself, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. He was declared a joint winner together with Saline Water Conversion Cooperation (SWCC) from Arab Saudi for the 3rd branch of the award on Alternative (non-traditional) Water Resources: Innovative Methods and System for Desalination. Each winner received a gold medal, trophy, certificate and cash award. Both winners were cited for their contribution on the use of nanofiltration (NF) membranes for desalination application. Prof. Abdul Wahab was also invited to present a keynote paper at the 3rd International Conference on Water Resources and Arid Environments held concurrently with the prize award ceremony from 16-18 November 2008.

Prof. Abdul Wahab contribution has been on a broader yet innovative means of enhancing the NF role within the desalination process. The main theme of his research work is the development of predictive modeling for nanofiltration membrane based on the extended Nernst-Planck equation with its concurrent utilisation for characterisation, process modeling, optimisation, membrane design and applications. The work in this area by Prof. Abdul Wahab and collaborators has been cited extensively by various researchers (more than 600 citations, H-index of 10) and the the number of scientific papers published ranked among the top 10 in the world in the area of Nanofiltration (ISI Citation Report 2007). He has also carried out research in this area and related topics with funding from various sources nationally and internationally.

Prof. Abdul Wahab received his secondary education at Royal Military College, Sungai Besi and Sekolah Sultan Badlishah, Kulim, Kedah before continuing his study at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA in chemical engineering. He then obtained his master’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana USA (1991) and PhD from University of Wales Swansea, UK (1998).

His academic career started with the appointment as tutor in 1989, lecturer in 1991, Associate Professor in 2000, and then to Professor in 2005 in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering. Prof. Abdul Wahab was appointed as the Industrial Training Coordinator at the Faculty of Engineering from 2001 – 2003, Head of Department for Department of Chemical and Process Engineering (2003 – 2005), Director of Advanced Engineering Centre (2005 – 2007), and Deputy Dean (2007 – present). He is also currently the Head of Engineering Materials Research Cluster and the Head for Scale-up and Downstream Processing Research Group.

Prof. Abdul Wahab is also actively involved in several engineering bodies locally and internationally. He currently sits on the board of Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) in the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) and Examination Board of Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM). He is also a Fellow with the Institution of Chemical Engineers UK, a registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng) in Malaysia and a Chartered Engineer (CEng) in UK.
Over the years, Prof. Abdul Wahab has received several awards and recognition including Gold Medal in Geneva exhibition (2003), UKM Young Researcher Award (2003), UKM Researcher Award (2007), Excellent Service Award (2006), UNSW Visiting Research Fellow (2007), and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham (2003 and 2005).

Please click on the link below for more information on:

1. Summary of the Research Work Submitted for the Award.
2. Further information on the prize.
3. Announcement on the Award Winner by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

	Prof.Abd. Wahab receives the award from Prince Sultan bin AbdulAziz.

	Prof. Abd. Wahab delivers the keynote lecture at the 3rd International Conference on Water Resources and Arid Environments.