Biographical note

Dr. Hafiz Muhammad Ali, currently working as an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, received his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom, in 2011. He was a postdoc at Water and Energy Laboratory of University of California at Merced, United States, during 2015–16. 

He is a noted faculty member having thermal sciences, heat transfer and solar energy as his major areas of interest. Over the span of several years, he supervised numerous undergraduate and postgraduate students, and his work produced more than 200 papers featured in various reputed international journals. He also represented his institution and Pakistan at several international and national conferences as an invited speaker and delivered various keynote talks. His other research interests include electronics cooling, condensation, nanofluids, heat transfer devices and thermal management. 

He is the recipient of the “Best Young Research Scholar Award” for 2017 in the Engineering category, conferred by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan at the 7th HEC Outstanding Research Award Ceremony. He also had the honor of receiving HEC’s Best Research Paper Award (2013/2014) and Research Productivity Award by Pakistan Council of Science and Technology (2016–17). Apart from his academic duties, he is actively involved with editorial duties at several international journals, notably Heat Transfer Engineering (Taylor & Francis),  Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (Springer), International Journal of Thermofluids (Elsevier), Journal Thermal Science and Journal of Mechanical Engineering. 

Ali Hassan has done his graduation in mechanical engineering from University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila. During his graduation, he worked on various projects related to thermodynamics and heat and mass transfer which include heat transfer analyses of microchannel unit cell, designing of geothermal heat exchanger for thermal comfort in winter season and heat transfer analysis for pins and rectangular fins.  He did comprehensive literature review on solar energy systems and nanofluid, and later, he conducted research on photovoltaic thermal system performance using nanofluid-PCM. His work on solar energy systems and nanofluids is published in high-impact factor journals. After his graduation, he worked in the field for 6 months as a trainee engineer. Last year, he moved to Australia for his post-graduation. Currently, he is enrolled in Queensland University of Technology as a research student. He is doing research on solar air collector integrated with thermal energy storage for drying applications. 

Abdul Wahab did his postgrad in Renewable Energy from Durham University, United Kingdom. He was awarded Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue his master's which is one of the most prestigious scholarship in UK. He did undergrad in Mechanical Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology Taxila. During his undergrad, he worked on designing and experimentation of novel photovoltaic thermal system to regulate energy efficiently. His research resulted in highest efficiency for solar thermal system and article on this work is regarded as highly cited paper on Web of Science. He also worked on the potential of nanofluids in solar energy systems and published a review paper. After undergrad, he worked as Research Assistant at Centre for Advanced Studies in Energy. He mastered in exergy analysis during this period and bridge the knowledge gap of exergy in hybrid photovoltaic thermal system.