Aref Lashin Author

Dornadula Chandrasekharam (Chandra: b1948, India), Chair Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) obtained his MSc in Applied Geology (1972) and PhD (1980) from IITB. He has been working in the fields of geothermal energy resources, volcanology, and groundwater pollution for the past 35 years. Before joining IITB, he worked as a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, and Centre for Earth Science Studies, Kerala, India for 7 years. He held several important positions during his academic and research career. He was a Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS, Trieste, Italy); Visiting Professor to Sanaa University, Yemen Republic between 1996–2001; Senior Associate of Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy from 2002–2007; Adjunct Professor, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan from 2011-2012. Recently he has been appointed as a visiting Professor to King Saud University of Saudi Arabia. He received the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP, Trieste, Italy) Fellowship to conduct research at the Italian National Science Academy (CNR) in 1997. Prof. Chandra extensively conducted research in low-enthalpy geothermal resources in India and is currently the Chairman of M/s GeoSyndicate Power Private Ltd., the only geothermal company in India. He is an elected board member of the International Geothermal Association, and has widely represented the country in several international geothermal conferences. He conducted short courses on low-enthalpy geothermal resources in Argentina, Costa Rica, Poland and China. He has supervised 18 PhD students and published 160 papers in peer reviewed journals of international repute and published 7 books in the field of groundwater pollution and geothermal energy resources. His three books on geothermal energy resources 1) ‘‘Geothermal Energy Resources for Developing Countries’’ Balkema Pub.(2002), 2) "Low Enthalpy Geothermal Resources for Power Generation" Taylor and Francis, (2008) and 3) "Geothermal Systems and Energy Resources Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Region" Taylor and Francis, (2014) are widely read. Prof Chandra served on the Board of Director of 1) Oil and Natural Gas Corporation 2) Western Coal Fields Ltd., 3) India Rare Earths Ltd. and 4) Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals. He has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Geothermal Energy Resources and Management committee constituted by the Department of Sciences and Technology, Government of India.

Aref Lashin, Currently working as an Associate Professor in the department of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, obtained his Ph.D from the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology. His permanent affiliation is with the department of geology and geophysics, Faculty of Science, Benha University, Egypt. He was a graduate student at the United Nations University, Geothermal Programme, Iceland in 2005. Dr Lashin's expertise is in the field of geothermal energy and hydrocarbon exploration and is currently executing several geothermal projects supported by NSTIP strategic technologies programs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He published a large number of scientific papers in ISI and peer-reviewed journals and supervised several many master and Ph.D students.

Nassir S. Al-Arifi, Ph. D. from the University of Manchester, UK, is currently the director of visiting professor program, vice rectorate for scientific research at King Saud University and a full professor specialized in earthquake seismology at the department of geology and geophysics, college of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh. Professor Al Arifi published more than 45 articles in peer-reviewed journals and supervised more than 17 M.Sc. theses. His current research interest is in the field of geothermal exploration using multi method applied geophysics and has published more than 15 articles in this field. He translated two books in the field of hydrogeology and geophysics.

Abdulaziz M Al-Bassam is a Professor of hydrogeology and hydrochemistry, Department of geology, College of Sciences, King Saud University. He obtained his M.Sc. degree from Ohio University, USA and Ph.D. from Birmingham University, UK. Earlier he was the Chair of the Geology Department, and Vice Dean for the college sciences, King Saud University. He held several important position in the Kingdom: Secretary of Saudi Society for Earth Science; Supervisor of Saudi Geological Survey Research Chair (SGSRC) for Natural Hazards; Member of Advisory committee for Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water; Member of Executive committee for Dams Operation and Maintenance Program. His research interests are hydrogeology, hydrochemistry, geothermal and environmental aspects. He published more than 50 papers, authored two books and translated a book.