Three NYU Abu Dhabi faculty members have been granted the UAE's 10-year golden residency visa in recognition of their outstanding research contributions to the UAE and the region. These include Professor of Civil and Urban Engineering Ali Diabat, Professor of Engineering and Director of NYUAD Water Research Center Nidal Hilal, and Professor of Chemistry Panče Naumov.

The UAE's 10-year golden residency visa is aimed at investors, exceptional doctors, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs and artists who have contributed significantly to the development of the UAE.

Diabat has been a UAE resident for more than twelve years and with NYU Abu Dhabi for three years. His research focuses on different applications of optimization and operations research: in particular, logistics and supply chain management, healthcare management, and production planning. He has published over 150 research journal papers in leading journals and international conference proceedings, and his research has received about 5 million dollars of grant funding from different industries and collaborative proposals with academic institutions. Professor Diabat has received several Excellence in Teaching awards, including an Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award and an Excellence in Teaching Award from Purdue University, in 2004 and 2006, respectively. He was the recipient of the 2012 Excellence in Teaching Award from Masdar Institute, and in 2014, he also received the Best Faculty Research Award from the Department of Engineering Systems and Management at Masdar Institute. Diabat currently serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Area Editor of the Journal of Computers and Industrial Engineering, and Engineering Editor of the Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering.

Hilal has been a UAE resident for seven years and with NYU Abu Dhabi for two years. He is a chartered engineer (CEng) in the UK, a registered European Engineer (Euro Ing), and an elected fellow of both the Institution of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE) and the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW). His research interests lie broadly in the identification of innovative and cost-effective solutions within the fields of nano-water, membrane technology, and water treatment. He has published nine handbooks, 86 invited book chapters, and nearly 500 articles in the refereed scientific literature and have been cited more than 20,000 times, with an h-index of 73. He is internationally recognized, as indicated by google scholar, as one of the world leaders in desalination. He has chaired and delivered lectures at numerous international conferences and prestigious organizations around the world. In 2005, he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree (DSc) from the University of Wales in recognition of an outstanding research contribution in the fields Water Treatment including Desalination and Membrane Science and Technology. He was also awarded, by the Emir of Kuwait, the prestigious Kuwait Prize of Applied Science in 2005. In addition, in 2020, the Learned Society of Wales awarded him with the Menelaus Medal for his excellence and achievements in science and technology. Hilal serves as Editor-in- Chief of the international Journal Desalination.

Naumov has been a UAE resident and with NYU Abu Dhabi for eight years. His research is in the field of materials science, focusing on design and implementation of smart materials for energy, water, and robotics applications. His portfolio includes over 230 publications that have been cited more than 4,500 times, with an h-index of 40. At research conferences, he has presented over 330 times. He has also delivered over 50 invited talks and more than 80 invited seminars at various academic institutions. He is a recipient of Harvard University's Radcliffe Fellowship, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Asian and Oceanian Photochemistry Association Prize for Young Scientists, Japanese Ministry of Science Fellowship, and Global Center of Excellence Fellowship, among other honors and awards. Naumov is also the founder of the UAE Chapter of the American Chemical Society, member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Society of Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence (ISBC), member of the Advisory Board of the International Conference on the Chemistry of the Organic Solid State (ICCOSS), and a reviewer of over 60 international journals and several funding agencies, among other roles.