CUHK Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Desalination
Academic Division: Civil Engineering
Email: mba37@cam.ac.uk
Biography
Bilal is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Desalination in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Wollongong (Australia) and completed postdoctoral research trainings from Tsinghua University, China and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. He has more than 16 years of professional experience across water and environmental engineering, including six years of experience in university teaching, and research supervision. His research is supradisciplinary and integrates materials science and water engineering to design functional platforms for desalination, nanoconfined catalysis, and recovery of critical minerals. He has contributed to multidisciplinary research, technology assessment, and advisory projects involving major organizations such as Saudi Aramco, Scottish Water, Sydney Water, PepsiCo, SUEZ, and Xylem. He has also been involved in market intelligence projects at the BlueTech Research covering global water policy, environmental regulation, and the transition towards net-zero and circular water economy. Bilal has authored more than 75 peer-reviewed journal papers and authored 18 invited book chapters. His academic distinctions include an Examiners’ Commendation for his PhD, a President’s Gold Medal, an Australian Government Research Fellowship award for his PhD, and a China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Award.
Department role and responsibilities