Faiza Al Kharafi is a well-known Kuwaiti chemist who was appointed as president of Kuwait University. She helped reconstruct the university after the first Gulf War (ended in 1991). Al kharafi served as a president of Kuwait University from 1993 to 2002. She was the first ever woman to head such a large educational institution in the country. She serves as the vice president of The World Academy of Sciences. She works on many boards including the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement Sciences and the Kuwait-MIT Centre for Natural Resources and Environment.

In 2005 Forbes Magazine recognized her as one of “The 100 Most Powerful Women-– Women to Watch in the Middle East“. In 2006 Al Kharafi received the Kuwait Prize in Applied Sciences. In 2008 The Council for Gulf Relations named her as Top Gulf Woman of the Year. In 2011 Al Kharafi was the recipient of the L’Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science for her work on corrosion.