Dr. Al-Athel got his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Then got his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2010. He spent 1 year as a post-doc at MIT in 2012. He Joined KFUPM in 2011 as an Assistant Professor and is now an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department. He was the chairman of the Mechanical Engineering department between 2020-2022 and is now the Dean of College of Engineering & Physics since 2022.