Hanadi Salem is a professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She resumed her duties as chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering on July 1, 2020. She is the first elected chair of the University Senate since the Fall 2020 semester, serving for four consecutive years since the establishment of the University Senate in 1993 and previously served as vice-chair in 2019. Salem served as the chair and a member of the Faculty Affairs Committee in the Senate from 2017 to 2020. She is the academic laboratory supervisor for 13 laboratories in the mechanical engineering department and was the coordinator of the materials and manufacturing area from 2003 to 2020.

She received her BSc and MSc in materials science and engineering from The American University in Cairo in 1983 and 1987. She received her PhD in mechanical engineering with a specialization in materials and manufacturing from Texas A&M University, Texas, in 1997. Salem joined the mechanical engineering department at the University as the first full-time assistant professor in 1999 and was the first tenured female faculty member in engineering departments at the School of Sciences and Engineering in 2005. She was promoted to the rank of full professor in 2010.

She was a co-founder of the Yousef Jameel Science and Technology Research Center in 2003 and was appointed the associate director for fundraising and external funding from November 2007 to 2008. She also served on its steering committee until 2022. Salem was the founder of the nanotechnology master’s program at the University, serving as the program director for five years, from 2009 to 2015. She was a co-founder of the PhD program in applied sciences and engineering in the Fall 2011 semester and a co-founder of the biotechnology master’s program in 2008. Salem is the founder and director of the Additive Manufacturing Centennial Lab, where she established the first Wire Arc Additive/Subtractive Manufacturing Integrated Robotic System in Egypt, Africa and the Middle East.

As a senate member, vice-chair and chair, she was fully dedicated to serving the well-being of the University community. She has relentlessly endeavored to bring the voices of students, staff, faculty and the administration together on matters such as student-related admissions, grading, well-being policies and procedures, staff concerns and encountered issues and faculty-related concerns, including the resolution of contentious issues in the Board of Trustees Faculty Handbook. Salem, as a senate representative, has served on many university-wide committees and task forces established by the president or the provost.

Salem has vast experience in program accreditation and equivalency at the undergraduate and graduate levels, nationally through the Supreme Council for Higher Education and internationally through ABET and at the institutional level with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Salem chaired the Mechanical Engineering Program ABET Accreditation Committee from the Fall 2012 semester to the Fall 2015 semester. She co-chaired committees and served on the University Steering Committee for the Middle States accreditation cycles of 2008 and 2017. She also served on the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation steering committee on the University and school levels from 2009 to 2012. She was among three University faculty members who founded the First Year Experience Program from 2005 to 2006. Salem also served as the University's focal point on the Egyptian National Nanotechnology Network under the auspices of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology.

Salem has a wide spectrum of national and international research and industrial partnerships, including consultation, services and research and development projects, which contribute significantly to fundraising efforts at the department and school levels. Salem was a visiting professor at the Functional Materials Center at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden; a visiting professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department of North Carolina State University, North Carolina, United States; and a research associate in the Department of Materials Science of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia, and at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, United States. She has research collaborations with a large number of public and national universities as well as internationally in the United States, Canada and Europe. Salem supervised a large number of MSc and PhD students at the University, national universities, regionally and internationally, many of whom are prolific, highly renowned academicians and researchers or industrial leaders worldwide.

Professor Salem has made significant contributions to the field of advanced materials and manufacturing technologies in Egypt and the region. Starting with her efforts in the early 2000s, she integrated nanomaterials and nanocomposites into the educational framework of the mechanical engineering program, raising awareness through organizing the first ASME International Nanotechnology Conference in 2003. She later established the nanotechnology program at the School of Sciences and Engineering in 2010. In 2017, she was a pioneer in introducing metal additive manufacturing technologies to the region. This culminated in the founding of the Additive Manufacturing Centennial Lab in 2019, which features an advanced additive and subtractive integrated robotic-controlled system, the first of its kind in the Middle East. This facility trains a new generation of engineers in cutting-edge manufacturing technologies. Salem currently supervises MSc and PhD researchers across national and private Egyptian universities and offers services to the industry in spare parts and die manufacturing with the long-term goal of transferring critical knowledge to local industries.

She has also led global workshops through the DigitalFuture series, educating industries and researchers on Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing and ensuring the accessibility of advanced manufacturing technologies to developing nations. Professor Salem's research extends to powder and wire-feed additive manufacturing using selective laser manufacturing. She founded and directs the Additive Manufacturing Centennial Lab, where Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing technology is used to produce and repair medium-to-large industrial parts.

Beyond additive manufacturing, Professor Salem has extensive expertise in the processing of bulk nanostructured materials using both powder metallurgy and severe plastic deformation. Her work has led to the creation of high-performance nanostructured products for tribological and high-temperature lightweight applications. Since 2000, Salem has been a global leader in Friction Stir Processing (FSP), a novel technology derived from friction stir welding, initially developed for joining aerospace aluminum alloys. Patented in 1991, Friction Stir Processing was relatively new at the time and went on to become a critical technology in the manufacture of space and aerospace structures. The global market for this technology grew to an estimated £250 million, underscoring its importance in the aerospace sector. Salem's pioneering work in Friction Stir Processing resulted in numerous journal and conference publications, contributing significantly to the global research impact of this technology. Her research has advanced the understanding and application of Friction Stir Processing and her efforts have helped establish it as a key technology in the production of high-performance aerospace components.

Salem received many awards, including: the exemplary mother of the University based on student services and achievements in 2009, the Achievements Award by the School of Sciences and Engineering in May 2009, the University’s Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award in the Fall 2010 semester and the Excellence in Research Award by the School of Sciences and Engineering in May 2011. Salem received the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology Cairoinnovate “Deepening of Industry” Award in 2019, and in 2023, she received the Alumni Distinguished Faculty Service Award.