Research Student Spotlight November 2026: Raied Refaei

Welcome to our monthly spotlight on the work and lives of the next generation of water@leeds researchers.

November's spotlight is: Raied Refaei

PhD title: Hydro-Mechanical Behaviour of Sabkha Soils under Climate-Driven Environmental Change

School: Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Supervisors: Dr Ana Heitor, Prof Peter Woodward, Dr Christopher Walker

Tell us a bit about yourself

My path into geotechnical engineering began at home in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. Sabkha soils are everywhere there, and so are the cracked roads and settling foundations they leave behind. Those everyday failures stayed with me. After my first degree, I spent several years as a civil site engineer, working on large developments such as the Riyadh Metro and the Jazan Refinery, where I learned just how much a project depends on the ground beneath it. A move to Jazan University then opened the door to academic work and, eventually, to postgraduate study in the very soils I had grown up around.

Why did you choose the University of Leeds?

I was drawn to Leeds by its depth in both geotechnics and environmental science, a combination that matched a project sitting at the meeting point of soil mechanics, water, geology and salinity. Beyond that, the specialist testing facilities, the guidance of supervisors who know this territory well, and the interdisciplinary spirit of communities like water@leeds gave me the setting I needed to bring these strands together.

What is your research about?

I work on Sabkha soils, the salt-rich ground found across arid and coastal regions where they routinely complicate construction. My aim is to understand how these soils respond physically, chemically, hydraulically and mechanically as pore-water salinity shifts and the wider climate changes around them. By piecing together how their strength and stability evolve, I hope to make ground assessment and design in salt-affected areas more dependable.

What did you wish you knew before starting a PhD?

That progress rarely moves in a straight line. Much of a PhD is learning to sit with uncertainty, adjust when experiments surprise you, and keep momentum through the slower stretches. Leaning on supervisors, staying connected beyond your own discipline, and marking small wins along the way make the whole journey far more manageable.

Connect with Raied on LinkedIn.