Former oil minister His Excellency Ali I. Al-Naimi has been granted an honorary degree in the Energy Resources and Petroleum Engineering program, a program launched this year, and pioneered in part by faculty at the research center that bears his name. This is the first doctorate honoris causa in the university's nine year history, proving the value of His Excellency's contribution to KAUST and the Kingdom. A Stanford alumnus, His Excellency also delivered a commencement speech to the graduating class of 2018. As the Energy GeoEngineering Research website puts it: "This is a milestone event for KAUST’s newest program and sets a particularly high role model for our upcoming graduates."

Learn more about the ERPE program here.