For the last 40 years, Dr. Aitani has been at KFUPM Research Institute where he has managed research projects and studies in the field of process technology and economic assessment of fuel oil upgrading and residue gasification for refinery power generation. In catalytic cracking, he has been coordinating the FCC lab and participated in various research projects notably the joint development of the high-severity fluid catalytic cracking (HS-FCC) process (now commercialized technology), and the development of FCC additives for improving gasoline properties sulfur and enhancing olefins production. He contributed to the KFUPM-Honeywell UOP project for the methylation of toluene to high-value xylenes (reached licensing stage). He has managed the steam catalytic conversion of crude oil and naphtha that reached scale-up stage with Aramco and Sabic. Dr. Aitani is the author or coauthor of numerous papers in the field of catalysis and petroleum products utilization which appeared in scientific and industrial journals. He has co-edited two books on “Catalytic Naphtha Reforming” and contributed expert review articles.  He is a member of American Society for Testing and Materials, American Chemical Society (ACS) peer reviewer for ACS and Elsevier.