GAATHIER MAHED

Background

Gaathier has a passion for Groundwater with a focus on understanding subsurface fluid flow. He holds a PhD and MSc, both focused on Fractured Rock Hydrogeology. Dr. Mahed has received extensive technical training in aspects of Geophysics and Isotopes in Germany and Morocco, the latter sponsored through the International Atomic Energy Agency. Dr. Mahed also trained in Belgium, Denmark and Tunisia on various aspects of Hydrogeology. He has worked in gold, uranium and coal mining as well as on shale gas research. He has served in his capacity as a consultant on various projects in the Earth Sciences for government, industry and academia. Some of the major companies he has completed worked for include Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), City of Cape Town and the Water Research Commission. Gaathier has also tenured as COO for a diversified energy startup firm which ventured into Biofuel, Shale Gas and Drilling. In this role he pitched for Venture Capital and also lead business development.

He has served on technical panels in South Africa to help water research projects focus on sustainable development and mitigate climate change. At the Water Research Commission of South Africa, for example, he was involved in a pilot project related to geothermal energy. Gaathier also occupies voluntary executive and non executive board positions at various companies and NGO's. One of the former voluntary positions he occupied was with Awqaf South Africa, where he gained valuable knowledge and insights into the NGO sector as well as charitable endowments and Islamic Finance. Dr Mahed also holds various diplomas in Leadership, Waqf and Project Management.

He was voted one of the Brightest Young Minds in South Africa for the year 2010, Mail & Guardian top 200 Young South Africans to take to lunch for 2011 and a World Islamic Economic Forum Global Young Fellow for 2013. He received the Nelson Mandela Alumni Society Rising Star Award for 2017 and was also admitted into the Royal Society of South Africa. Dr Mahed has been awarded an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship, amongst multiple other prestigious funding opportunities, for exchange at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Gaathier was also a finalist in two categories for the NSTF awards, dubbed the Oscars of Science in South Africa, in 2018. He was was awarded the Science Faculty Excellent Teacher award for 2018 and the University Emerging Lecturer award from the Vice Chancellor for Excellence for 2020. Dr Mahed also served as the Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Science at Nelson Mandela University.