Samah's research is focused on quantifying uncertainty in marine pollution transport forecasts. He develops innovative methods to improve the solution of forward and inverse oil spill problems by accounting for uncertainties in metocean data and remote sensing observations.
Selected Publications
Iterative data-driven construction of surrogates for an efficient Bayesian identification of oil spill source parameters from image contours. S. El Mohtar, O. Le Maître, O. Knio, I. Hoteit. Computational Geosciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-024-10288-9
Bayesian identification of oil spill source parameters from image contours. S. El Mohtar, B. Ait-El-Fquih, O. Knio, I. Lakkis, I. Hoteit. Marine Pollution Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112514
Lagrangian tracking in stochastic fields with application to an ensemble of velocity fields in the Red Sea. S. El Mohtar, I. Hoteit, O. Knio, L. Issa, I. Lakkis. Ocean Modelling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2018.08.008
Education
Samah holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree (2013) in Mechanical Engineering from the Lebanese University (LU), Lebanon, a Master's of Engineering degree (2017) in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon, and a Ph.D. degree (2023) in Earth Science and Engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
Professional Profile
Postdoc, KAUST, Feb 2022 – Jan2023, Ocean modeling and physical oceanography
Ph.D. Earth Sciences and Engineering, KAUST, Dec 2017 – Oct 2023, Uncertainty quantification in forward and inverse oil spill problems with application to the Red Sea
2015-2017: Research Assistant, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
2014-2015: Design Engineer, YLE GmbH, Beirut, Lebanon
Awards
Physical Science and Engineering Dean’s Award (2022) for Ph.D. achievements (KAUST)
