MBZUAI celebrates faculty excellence at annual recognition reception

MBZUAI has honored seven faculty members for their exceptional contributions to research, teaching, innovation, mentorship, service, and community at its annual Faculty Recognition and Welcome Reception.

The gathering, held to mark the start of the academic year, brought together faculty across the University to celebrate achievements that exemplify MBZUAI’s mission to advance AI in service of humanity.

Research with global impact

Professor Khan has built a formidable research portfolio in the past year, publishing at top venues such as CVPR, IJCV, T-PAMI, ICLR, and NeurIPS. His projects formed the basis of the two largest grants in MBZUAI’s history: AI4Weather, which is advancing the science of climate modeling, and the AI Global Agriculture Advisory, which will leverage AI to support food security worldwide. His proposal Climate Co-Pilot’s Agentic Pipeline was the only UAE project selected for funding by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in 2025, underscoring his international standing. His paper, AirCast: Improving Air Pollution Forecasting Through Multi-Variable Data Alignment, won Best Paper at the 2025 Terrabytes workshop, held alongside CVPR. Meanwhile, his mentorship continues to shape the next generation of researchers, with one of his students, Maaz, securing a prestigious Google Fellowship.

View Salman Khan’s profile.

The Early Career Researcher Award went to Assistant Professor of Natural Language Processing, Alham Fikri Aji, whose work in NLP has rapidly gained international recognition. With an H-index of 33 and five Best or Outstanding Paper Awards in the past three years, Dr. Aji has demonstrated exceptional productivity and scholarly impact.

In the classroom, he has taught Data Science and Algorithms and coached MBZUAI’s undergraduate team for the prestigious International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC).

View Alham Fikri Aji’s profile.

Bridging research and innovation

Together with his students, he co-founded the startup Audiomatic, a venture that has already secured external grants and attracted a rapidly growing user base. His work exemplifies MBZUAI’s mission to transform groundbreaking research into real-world applications, building bridges between technology, industry, and culture.

View Gus Xia’s profile.

Mentorship, service, and community

Dr. Horváth is known for cultivating a supportive lab environment and encouraging students to pursue professional opportunities, whether through conferences, collaborations, or career connections. His approach embodies MBZUAI’s student-centered ethos and commitment to fostering future AI leaders.

View Samuel Horváth’s profile.

Beyond the classroom, he has pioneered initiatives such as BioLunch: a weekly forum where researchers share their work, which has become a cornerstone of the department’s intellectual and social life. Through workshops and community-building activities, he has fostered a vibrant, collaborative, and supportive academic environment that enriches the entire University community and beyond.

View Eduardo Beltrame’s profile.

Dr. Kementchedjhieva has also helped cultivate a lively office culture, introducing initiatives ranging from department reading groups to wall art and a board game corner. Her efforts have made the University’s academic environment more collaborative, inclusive, and welcoming.

View Yova Kementchedjhieva’s profile.

Leadership for the public good

View Eran Segal’s profile.