Dr. Alkhalifah's research interests are in seismic modeling, imaging and inversion. In particular, he looks at developing new partial differential equations to simplify modeling, imaging and possibly inversion, with a special focus on anisotropic media. This includes parameter estimation in anisotropic complex media.

His future research objectives include developing his methods for waveform inversion and imaging utilizing machine learning and artificial intelligence,  enhancing applications related to environmental hazards of the near surface, pipeline leakage and ground failure (sink holes) and focusing on computational efficiency to accurately locate new hydrocarbon reserves and assess the production value of existing ones based on his seismic exploration method.  Much of this research will be driven by the development of his startup Omega One Seismics.

• Ph.D. Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines, 1997
• M.S. Geophysical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 1993
• B.S. Geophysics, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, 1988

• 2009- present, Professor of Geophysics, KAUST, Saudi Arabia.
• 2006–2009, Research Professor, Director of the Oil and Gas Research Institute, King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• 2002–2006, Associate Research Professor, Director of the Astronomy and Geophysics Research Institute, KACST, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• 1998–2002, Assistant Research Professor, KACST, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• 1997-1998, Post Doc, Stanford University, CA, USA
• 1988–1991, Research Assistant, KACST, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

• The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG)
• European Association for Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE)
• American Geophysical Union (AGU)

1. Honorable mention for the best paper in the Geophysics journal: "Full model wavenumber inversion", 2016
2. EET10 course tour, EAGE 2014-2015
3. Honorary lecturer for Middle East and Africa, SEG 2011
4. Best Geophysics Paper, presented at GEO2006 Bahrain, 2006
5. Conrad Schlumberger Award, European Association for Geoscientists and Engineers, 2003
6. Clarence J. Karcher Award, The Society of Exploration Geophysicists, 1998
7. Honorable mention for the best paper in the Geophysics journal: "Velocity analysis using nonhyperbolic moveout in transversely isotropic media",1997
8. Honorable mention for best student paper presented at the 62nd SEG annual meeting: "Integral DMO in anisotropic media," 1996
9. Honorable mention for the best paper in the Geophysics journal: "Velocity analysis for transversely isotropic media", 1995