Tariq Alkhalifah: building a clearer picture of the subsurface

Tariq Alkhalifah is a KAUST professor whose work focuses on geophysics, seismic imaging and the computational methods used to understand the subsurface. He joined the university as a founding faculty member in 2009.

The work behind the profile

Before KAUST, he led the Oil and Gas Research Institute at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. His training includes King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and the Colorado School of Mines, with research experience at Stanford University.

His current interests include machine learning for imaging and inversion, alongside applications involving subsurface monitoring and environmental hazards. The career demonstrates how mathematical and computational expertise can deepen a long-established industrial discipline while opening additional research directions for specialists in Saudi Arabia.

Source: KAUST · official page. Checked 16 October 2026. Image credit: KAUST.

Editorial profile based on publicly available sources.