text: Mahdi starting his academic career working in the Water Resource Division in the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Researches before moving to Kuwait University to become Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, where he taught 30 different courses in general engineering, chemical engineering as well as management sciences. He received Kuwait University's Best Teaching Award in 2009 among other honors and awards. Mahdi has authored or co-authored more than 75 journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, patents, and books in different fields. His primary interest is the study of modeling complex systems and process optimization. Mahdi and collaborators also established SYNERGY with Prof. Maytham Safar, Computer Engineering Department at Kuwait University. He is a senior member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)  and several other professional societies.