Prior to joining the American University of Sharjah (AUS) as Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies and Professor of Environmental Sciences, Dr. Gautam Sen was Associate Dean of Research at Florida International University (FIU). At FIU, he also served as Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences (currently Earth and Environment), and was the recipient of research awards and the prestigious Excellence in Service Award. He is presently on a leave-of-absence from FIU, where he is a tenured Full Professor. Dr. Sen has been a member of many US national and international committees that included research and instrumentation panels at the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. He served as a program officer at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC (later in Arlington, VA). Dr. Sen also founded the Florida Center for Analytical Electron Microscopy, which serves the entire United States via remote operation of its instruments. Professor Sen has written/edited books and published papers in highly ranked journals, including Science and Nature. One of his papers was chosen to be the cover article in Science. Dr. Sen has served on international committees, chaired conferences, given numerous lectures and chaired technical conferences worldwide. He has supervised four doctoral dissertations, four post-doctoral fellows, and served on many more doctoral and master's committees. He has supervised many graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. Professor Sen received his PhD in Geosciences from the University of Texas at Dallas, USA, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California at Los Angeles.