Dr. Arif has received his MS and Ph.D degrees in Mechanical Engineering from University of Minnesota, USA, in 1988 and 1991, respectively. He has obtained his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from NED University of Engineering, Pakistan, in 1985.

After the completion of Ph.D. studies, Dr. Arif has worked with Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission of Pakistan in aerospace structure design. For four years, he has worked in automobile industry and acquired practical experience related to design and manufacturing of heavy vehicles. In 1995, Dr. Arif joined a local joint venture with Cummins Engine Company of USA for the progressive manufacturing of Cummins diesel engines and he obtained extensive training on product development, quality system and process documentation at different Cummins facilities in UK. In 1996, Dr. Arif joined academia as a faculty member in Mechanical Engineering department of GIK Institute in Pakistan. Later, he moved to KFUPM in 1998. Since then he is active in pursuing research in applied mechanics with applications in engineering design and manufacturing. He has taught a number of Mechanical Engineering graduate and undergraduate courses including Finite Element Analysis in Mechanical Design, Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis, Machine Design, Mechanics of Materials and Manufacturing Processes.

Dr. Arif’s research interests lie in the areas of design and manufacturing. The fields of his research interest include Computational Applied Mechanics, Engineering Design, Modeling and Simulation of Manufacturing Processes, Finite Element Analysis, Elasto-Plastic Wave Propagation and Laser Applications in Manufacturing.

His primary area of research is the linear and nonlinear mechanics associated with deformation processing in manufacturing. It involves a combination of computational and experimental work. The general aim of the research carried out by him and his research collaborators is to integrate material response under thermo-mechanical loading into governing equations and to solve the resulting equations by numerical techniques, with prime emphasis on the applications of the finite difference and finite element methods. The goals are to develop a more fundamental understanding of the relation between deformation and process parameters during materials processing, and to apply this understanding to tooling design with enhanced life and optimum process control. Processes studied include metal extrusion, metal rolling, laser heating, laser cutting, laser welding and laser shock processing.

The efforts that Dr. Arif put in teaching and research have earned him several awards including KFUPM Distinction Award for Excellence in Research (2007-2008) and Donald Julius Groen Award from IMechE’s Manufacturing Industries Division during Manufacturing Div. AGM on 13th September 2007 for his paper entitled “Plastic Deformation of Steel Surface Due to Laser Shock Processing” (Co-authors: B.S.Yilbas and M.A.Gondal) published in  Proc.  Instn Mech Engrs Part B (Journal of Engineering Manufacture), Vol. 220, pp. 857-867, 2006.