Making the most of opportunity

For Joachim Azzi it all started in Lyon, France’s second largest city, where he grew up seeing his parents work hard and aspire to great things for him. Excelling academically, he had the opportunity of studying Chemistry and Engineering Process at the prestigious Lyon School of Chemistry, Physics, and Electronics. During his undergraduate studies, and up until he accepted an offer from The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (Boston, MA) as a research Scholar, he had never travelled far from his hometown, nor been a passenger on a plane.

From his humble beginnings, where Joachim says he learnt the value of hard work and to follow his dreams, this young man’s life has gone on to span the globe. During the year at MIT, he applied to KAUST after meeting Professor Jean-Marie Basset (who at the time was KCC Center Director). “I still remember the first time I checked my email and saw these words “Congratulations, you have been selected,” Joachim says.

From Saudi to China

After graduating from KAUST, and receiving several job offers including in-Kingdom, he decided to experience more of the world and accepted an offer to work in China. Joachim spent three years living in Guangzhou working in the polystyrene business as a Product Development Engineer at TOTAL Petrochemicals. “The culture was really different from France, the USA and Saudi Arabia. China was another world.” In this role, he was responsible for the production of 400kt of polystyrene per year, and evaluating new suppliers, developing new products and meeting customers. Joachim is passionate about new cultural experiences, and of his international exposure he says: “It’s been very enriching to see different countries and experience different cultures.” 

Today, Joachim is Senior Technical Service Engineer at Total in Houston, Texas, where he's worked for the last five years in one of the largest integrated polystyrene plants in the world. In particular, he’s found it incredibly satisfying to develop products in the lab for new applications; recently he moved to Tech Service where he now interacts with customers.It is unusual to hear anyone say anything good about plastic but Joachim offers a different and interesting view.

Plastic is part of our life. It is used in so many applications and is a clean product to manufacture. It is not plastic itself that is the problem, it is the end user. People are not educated to dispose of it correctly.”

Beyond his career, Joachim describes himself as a gym rat where for him, lifting weights is an escape and working out just part of life. For this young man from Lyon, the US is now home and where, if things go according to plan, he will be in a management role within the next five years.