merouane debbah

Mérouane Debbah is a researcher, educator, and technology entrepreneur. He has founded several public and industrial research centers and start-ups, and has held executive positions in ICT companies. He is a professor at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the founding Senior Director of the Khalifa University Research Institute for Digital Future. His research lies at the interface of fundamental mathematics, algorithms, statistics, information science, and communication science, with a special focus on random matrix theory and learning algorithms. In the AI field, he is known for his work on large language models, distributed AI systems for networks, and semantic communications. In the communication field, he has been at the heart of the development of small cells (4G), massive MIMO (5G), and large intelligent surfaces (6G). He has received more than 50 IEEE best-paper awards and holds more than 100 patents for his contributions to both fields. According to Research.com, he is ranked as the best scientist in France in the field of electronics and electrical engineering, and in 2025 he was named one of the “50 Leaders at the Forefront of an AI-Driven Future in the Middle East” and one of the “Arab’s Most Influential Leaders in Tech".