Dr. Alaa received M.Sc. in 1973 and Ph.D. in 1980 from the faculty of Engineering at King’s College, the University of London, in absorption refrigeration. He has been a member of the prestigious Refrigeration, air conditioning, heat pumps Technical Options Committee (RTOC) of the United Nations. He has been instrumental in the establishment of the first two district cooling company in Egypt. He has also been appointed as head of the committee writing the first refrigerants code and district cooling code for Egypt by the minister of Housing. He has also written a reference book on district cooling titled, District Cooling: Theory and Practice.