KAUST held its 14th commencement ceremony on Friday, honoring this year's class of 433 graduating students. The Class of 2023 has the highest-ever percentage of Saudi graduates at 43 percent, with Saudi female students representing 45 percent of the total Saudi graduates.

The commencement ceremony was chaired by the KAUST Board of Trustees, distinguished attendees including Professor Andrew Hamilton, Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, as well as senior KAUST leaders and esteemed faculty members.

In his commencement speech, KAUST President Tony Chan applauded the accomplishments of the graduates and shed light on the University's new strategic direction in alignment with Saudi Vision 2030.

President Chan said: "Our new strategic plan places more emphasis on the University to align focus to the specific needs of Saudi Arabia and to accelerate our impact on the nation and the world, and we are well on our way." He continued, "Our expanding influence aligns seamlessly with the ambitions of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030,” underscoring KAUST's role as the preferred partner for giga-projects and initiatives such as NEOM, Red Sea Global, New Murabba, the Circular Carbon Program, Ocean Quest, the Saudi Green Initiative, and various ministry-led programs on climate, water, health, and artificial intelligence. These partnerships have been institutionalized through the establishment of the National Transformation Institute.

President Chan also highlighted several of KAUST’s current groundbreaking projects, such as building the world’s largest coral nursery and reefscape at Shushah Island, and acquiring Shaheen III, the most powerful supercomputer in the Middle East and among the world’s top 20 most powerful supercomputers.

President Chan also showcased several outstanding Saudi students at KAUST during the commencement ceremony, including Fatima Aldakheel, a scientist at Sipchem, a Petrochemical Company in Saudi Arabia; Asrar Damdam, a KAUST alumna and C.E.O. of Uvera, Inc., who is also recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 and laureate of the L’Oreal-UNESCO Prize for Women in the Middle East; Omar Alkhazragi, who has published over 50 papers in impactful journals, specializes in optical and quantum communications, has won several international awards, including the International Society for Optics and Photonics Scholarship, and will join the University of Michigan; and Walaa Khushaim, Ibn Khaldun Fellow at M.I.T., who has developed biosensors for the rapid and early detection of heart attack biomarkers.

Khushaim, the first Saudi female Ph.D. bioengineering graduate at KAUST, spoke at the ceremony. “I am honored to stand among you as KAUST’s first female Ph.D. bioengineering graduate and to express my gratitude to this University for providing me with a unique opportunity to work on an impactful Ph.D. project under the supervision of Professor Khaled Salama,” she said.

Her fellow graduate from Austria, Anna Fruehstueck, Computer Science Ph.D., shared her admiration for the University’s strong sense of community. “I fell in love with the spirit of excellence that this place exudes, but I also saw that doing research is much less about the genius of a single person. It’s about collaborating and finding like-minded people that challenge and inspire you,” she said.

Dutch Ph.D. graduate in Mechanical Engineering, Bram van der Heijden, echoed Fruehstueck’s words and highlighted the University’s excellence at supporting collaborations. “KAUST, beyond being a university, is a unique ecosystem that nurtures collaboration. Our small but diverse community stands as a testament to what can be achieved when people from various backgrounds and disciplines come together,” he said.