Dr. Zafar Said is currently working as a Distinguished Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the United Arab Emirates University, UAE. He received his doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Malaya, Malaysia, and completed his postdoctoral research at Khalifa University, UAE. Dr. Said is a recognized leader in energy technology, nanofluids, and sustainable energy. His major areas of interest include heat transfer, solar energy systems, and advanced thermofluids. His research focuses on battery thermal management, enhancement of solar collectors using nanofluids and turbulators, and the development of stable nanorefrigerants and nanolubricants. He also applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict thermophysical properties and optimize energy systems.
He is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Khalifa Award for Education as Distinguished University Professor (2025), the Future Pioneer Award in Sustainability (2025), and Best Academic Research at the 13th Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport (2024). He has also received the Research and Innovation Award from the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (2022) and First Place in Scientific Research at the Excellence and Creative Engineering Award (2023) by the Society of Engineers, UAE. In recognition of his contributions, he has been consistently ranked among the world's top 2% of scientists in the field of energy by Elsevier BV and Stanford University. In addition to his academic duties, he actively serves in editorial roles for several international journals and is a frequent keynote speaker at global conferences. Dr. Essam Abo-Zahhad is a dedicated and accomplished mechanical engineering academic specializing in computational heat transfer and fluid flow. With a solid drive to advance the thermal sciences and engineering field, Essam's academic journey has been marked by exceptional achievements and a commitment to excellence. Essam completed his undergraduate studies in mechanical engineering, where his passion for computational heat transfer and fluid flow first emerged.
Motivated by an insatiable enthusiasm, he pursued his M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies at the Egypt-Japan University of Science & Technology in collaboration with the prestigious Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. During his Ph.D., he had the privilege of spending a year at Tokyo Tech, where he designed and implemented an experimental setup to investigate flow boiling phenomena in microchannels, focusing on cooling requirements for high-concentrated multi-junction solar cells.
Essam recently joined the Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering (RSIE) at the University of Sharjah. His work focuses on analyzing energy harvesting within national-level research projects in the U.A.E., collaborating with government partners, and conducting studies on renewable Energy and green thermal energy systems.