Mohamed Gamal El-Din 

Summary 

Dr. Gamal El-Din is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta. His research focuses on the fundamentals of advanced and innovative treatment approaches for water and wastewater (municipal and industrial such as oil and gas). Dr. Gamal El-Din is one of the top researchers in the area of Environmental Engineering in Canada. Since 2011, he holds an NSERC Senior Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in Oil Sands Tailings Water Treatment. Because of his contribution in teaching and research, in 2013 Dr. Gamal El-Din was awarded Killam Annual Professorship, University of Alberta. In 2017, he received the Alberta Science and Technology Leadership (ASTech) Foundation Award for Innovation in Oil Sands Research. 

Dr. Gamal El-Din’s research work has resulted in important advancements in the area of advanced oxidation and ozone treatment, membrane separation and biological processes. Another part of his research program has centered on the development of new materials and their applications in water and wastewater treatment. His research has impacted: (1) academia as indicated by citations, publications in high quality journals and invited presentations; (2) industry by significant and sustained industry funding; (3) government agencies through research grants; (4) and training of highly qualified personnel by their contributions to the Canadian workforce in terms of competitiveness and productivity. Currently, Dr. Gamal El-Din’s h-index is 70 (16,391 citations) as per Google Scholar.

Contributions

As a result of Dr. Gamal El-Din’s research, particularly in the area of ozone and advance oxidation treatment, there was a change in the direction of thought of the researchers in this field. He has garnered significant interest, from the end users in the ozone treatment industry and the regulatory agencies, for his ozone research findings. A number of researchers have shown interest in applying some of the comprehensive mechanistic models that he developed and they have also expressed interest in implementing the design of the impinging-jet ozone bubble column. Also, a number of researchers and industry people have shown interest in his advanced oxidation research findings. As evidence of Dr. Gamal El-Din’s contributions to the field of ozone and advanced oxidation treatment of water and wastewater, he was invited to present papers during the Plenary Sessions at the Water Supply and Water Quality Conference, Poznań, Poland, September 2004; 2nd European Conference on Environmental Applications of Advanced Oxidation Processes EAAOP2, Nicosia, Cyprus, September 2009; International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, December 2010; ICEPC 2017 - The International Conference on Environmental Pollution Control, Vancouver, British Columbia, October 2017; ICECS 2017 10th International Conference on Environmental and Computer Science, Ottawa, September 2017. He has also been invited to write critiques on ozonation and advanced oxidation treatment of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and surfactants for two journals, Ozone Science and Engineering Journal and Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science.  

Dr. Gamal El-Din was among one of five researchers from the University of Alberta (10 province-wide) to share $1.2 million in funding ($110,000 each) as part of the first Alberta Ingenuity New Faculty Grant competition in 2003. Further, he was awarded a Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award in 2005, which provided $20,000 toward his research on petroleum refinery wastewater treatment. Since 2011, Dr. Gamal El-Din holds an NSERC Senior Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in Oil Sands Tailings Water Treatment. Moreover, Dr. Gamal El-Din was one of six Theme Leads in the highly successful Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative (CAN$25 million for 5 years), an independent international research partnership between the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (Germany) and the University of Alberta (Canada). The HAI was a multidisciplinary effort with stakeholders and researchers from academia, government and industry in Canada and Germany who addressed key challenges in the oil sands and coal industries. Recently, Dr. Gamal El-Din was one of the main contributors to secure $75 million for energy funding through the UofA’s Future Energy Systems (FES) by providing technical support to the area of water use and reclamation. He is one of the leads of the FES Theme on Resilient Reclaimed Land and Water Systems. The participation of Dr. Gamal El-Din in the abovementioned key strategic initiatives for the University of Alberta shows his efforts to develop and advance economically viable solutions to reduce the environmental footprint of fossil fuels and to achieve cleaner, safer and more abundant low-carbon energy systems. 

Education and Employment History 

Education

• Ph.D. (Environmental Engineering) 1995-2001: Dissertation title “Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Verification of the Performance of Ozone Bubble Columns”. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

• M.Sc. (Civil Engineering) 1994-1995: Course based. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.

• B.Sc. with Honours (Civil Engineering) 1986-1991: Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.

Employment History

• July 2008-Present: Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

• July 2005-June 2008: Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

• July 2001-June 2005: Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

• September 1997-May 2001: Sessional Lecturer, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

• September 1995-June 2001: Teaching and Research Assistant, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

• January 1994-August 1995: Research Assistant, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.

• August 1991-December 1993: Structural Design Engineer, ELOSEILY Consulting Office, Cairo, Egypt.

Teaching Activities

Teaching Philosophy

Dr. Gamal El-Din’s teaching experience started when he was a graduate student, at Wayne State University, teaching other fellow graduate students; then, he expanded his teaching experience by teaching graduate-level courses at the University of Alberta. Dr. Gamal El-Din’s teaching philosophy incorporates two core beliefs: effective communication between the instructor and the students and teaching engineering through an iterative process of theoretical study and applications. His interaction with students and his respect for them have played a key role in improving his teaching and making it more effective. An important part of Dr. Gamal El-Din’s teaching philosophy is based on his firm belief that a continuous improvement of teaching has to be achieved every year. Therefore, he is always in a state of evolving the courses that he teaches. As a Professional Engineer and an Environmental Engineering Professor, Dr. Gamal El-Din believes that all engineering professors have to ensure that their students, the next generations of Canadian environmental and civil engineers, have the right and best possible environment during their university education. This means that in a university-learning environment, the students should be able to gain the required engineering education and skills at the highest level possible to continuously and effectively learn and improve their skills.  

Dr. Gamal El-Din is interested in teaching a broad range of engineering material and has particular interest in topics related to water and wastewater treatment. His teaching is influenced by his research work. He has served as the instructor for several civil and environmental engineering courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including Facility Design, Environmental Engineering Design, Physical/Chemical Water and Wastewater Treatment, Applications of Artificial Neural Networks in Environmental Engineering, and Advanced Water and Wastewater Treatment, among others. 

Courses Taught and/or Developed 

Since Dr. Gamal El-Din’s appointment in July 2001, he has been involved in classroom instruction for undergraduate and graduate courses. Undergraduate courses taught include: environmental chemistry for engineering; facility design; principles of environmental modeling and risk; environmental engineering design; and municipal systems. Graduate courses taught include: Physical/Chemical Water and Wastewater Treatment; Environmental Engineering Measurements; Advanced Water and Wastewater Treatment; Engineering Management of Water Quality; and Applications of Artificial Neural Networks in Environmental Engineering.

Training of Highly Qualified Personnel 

Mentoring Philosophy

One of the main goals of Dr. Gamal El-Din’s career is to train highly qualified personnel (HQP) by providing them interdisciplinary expertise in multi-barrier water and wastewater treatment approaches and management to address the challenges facing the field of environmental engineering and science. As a mentor, Dr. Gamal El-Din tries to lead by example, but also tries to encourage student originality and success by helping students seek out multiple sources of advice and examples. He is interested in working with students at all educational levels and he is interested in hearing just about any research idea. Dr. Gamal El-Din strives to be a good mentor by challenging his students, demonstrating enthusiasm and by showing respect for their ideas.

At the undergraduate level, Dr. Gamal El-Din encourages and guides the student’s personal growth and academic development, while providing support and assistance as the student works through the challenges of academic life. His mentoring at the graduate level has been centered on two different arenas: mentoring Ph.D. students in guiding them for their future academic roles and mentoring Master’s students in providing them with as much information and assistance as possible regarding professional opportunities and decisions. Dr. Gamal El-Din recognizes the role of postdoctoral fellows and research associates to mentor undergraduate and graduate students in specific research projects, by providing advice to students who are seeking research experiences, and serve as liaisons to help students identify research opportunities.

More About Dr. Gamal El-Din and His Research Group