Dr. Hoteit is a founding faculty member at KAUST (2009) and professor of earth science and engineering. He is recognized for advancing climate and environmental modeling, remote sensing, Red Sea eddy dynamics, and modern data assimilation and modeling techniques. Before joining KAUST, he was a research scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, focusing on atmosphere and ocean circulation modeling. He currently directs the Climate Change Center, a national initiative under the National Center for Meteorology funded by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, and Saudi Aramco Marine Environment Research Center at KAUST, supporting large-scale climate and environmental applications of national and global significance. Professor Hoteit and his team develop integrated, data-driven modeling systems to analyze and predict atmospheric and oceanic circulation and climate variability across the Arabian Peninsula. He received the Kuwait Prize in Fundamental Sciences (2020) and serves as an associate editor for multiple journals in his field.​

Professor Hoteit’s research focuses on integrating dynamical models with observations to simulate, analyze and predict geophysical fluid systems. He develops and applies oceanic and atmospheric models alongside ensemble data assimilation, inverse methods and uncertainty quantification for large-scale geophysical applications. Current work builds integrated modeling and forecasting systems for the Arabian Peninsula, with emphasis on the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, to resolve circulation, variability, air-sea interactions and their influence on ecosystem productivity. The group links these physical insights to environmental management and policy by translating predictions into actionable indicators for marine and coastal systems. The team also leverages advanced artificial intelligence to enhance forecasting skill, improve model parameterizations and accelerate workflows across applications in marine and terrestrial ecosystems and renewable energy.​