Ali Abdalla Elagroudy, Sherien is an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering as well as the director and founder of Egypt Solid Waste Management Center of Excellence at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. She was born and raised in Egypt.

Sherien holds Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering (1993-1998), Master's degree in Environmental Engineering (1998-2003) and Doctoral degree in Environmental Engineering (2003-2008) from Ain Shams University. In her Ph.D. studies at Ryerson University, Sherien modeled the settlement of bioreactor landfills and then build a field-scale prototype of that novel landfill in Cairo. Her new bioreactor avoided methane emissions into air and leaching of wastewater into Cairo's water supply. She continued her research in novel solid waste treatment systems that could mitigate the environmental impact of waste through post-doctoral research at Yale.

Elagroudy became interested in solid waste during college when she got involved with a group that was looking to start a campus recycling program. They successfully implemented a program that diverted tons of recyclable materials from landfills to be reused. She felt great satisfaction to be able to have a tangible impact on Egypt's economy and environment.

Since her undergraduate studies, Sherien has spent more than 16 years in research and practical projects to design and implement real-world solid waste management strategies, supervising both postgraduate students and junior engineers to train the next generation of academic and industrial leaders in the field.

Consistent with Sherien’s passion to do more than just academic work, she works as a solid waste expert at Chemonics Egypt. She led the team at Chemonics in setting the solid waste management strategy for several countries.

Elagroudy is leading some research projects in the fields of biowaste digestion, production of solid recovered fuel, bioenergy production and sludge treatment and disposal. She is also involved in low-cost technologies for wastewater treatment. She has conducted short term fellowships at Yale University, USA and at CIRAD, France. Dr. Elagroudy is also involved in several EU-funded TEMPUS projects to establish new curricula in Environmental studies and solid waste management.

For 12 years, Sherien has coupled research experience with industrial work with National and International Counterparts (e.g. UNICEF / UN-HABITAT, UNDP, EEAA, GTZ, etc). She serves as the head of the Solid Waste Unit at Chemonics Egypt Consultants and has been involved in several projects in solid waste and hazardous waste management and wastewater treatment.

Sherien hopes to up cycle different waste materials, i.e transform waste materials into new materials or products, towards the upper end of the innovation scale.

She has published several journal papers and book chapters and serves as a reviewer for several key journals.

Dr. Elagroudy has won the best young scientist award from Ain Shams University. She is a member of the Global Young Academy as well as a steering committee member of the Egyptian Young Academy of Sciences. She has been selected as a Young Scientist at the World Economic Forum 2012 and also serves on the Editorial Board of Enhanced Research Publications.

Sherien’s work was recognized with the L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2013 and she was honored as a young scientist at the World Economic Forum in China in 2013. She is a fellow of the Global Young Academy as well as a steering committee member of Egypt’s Young Academy of Science.

Sherien is currently engaged in several research grants of more than $3.5 million in the fields of solid waste management, biochemical waste treatment technologies and waste to energy.