Assem Barakat was born in Egypt in 1981. He earned a BSc in chemistry in 2002 from Alexandria University, Egypt, and a PhD in 2010 from Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy in a joint program with ETH, Zurich, Switzerland and the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He joined King Saud University in 2011 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 2017, and then was promoted to full professor in 2021. His research interests are focused on the organic synthesis of biologically active compounds. He has written more than 250 articles.