Cafer T. Yavuz received his Ph.D. from Rice University in 2008 with a Welch scholarship and was a postdoc at UCSB (2008–2010). He worked at KAIST from 2010-2020. Currently, he is a professor of chemistry at KAUST with a research focus on nano and porous materials design and synthesis for applications in the environment, particularly for CO₂ capture and conversion.

Cafer T. Yavuz received his B.S. degree in Chemistry (2001) from the Middle East Technical University, finishing the advanced curriculum in only 3 years and ranking 1st. When he was in high school, he attended the 29th and 30th International Chemistry Olympiads representing Turkey and won a silver and bronze medal. He was admitted to Rice University in 2001 with Welch scholarship and received his Master's and Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Vicki L. Colvin. His research focused on production of magnetic nanocrystals and their use in arsenic removal. His thesis work received Forbes magazine's "Top 5 nanotech breakthroughs of 2006" and selected as one of the “Six Ideas That Will Change The World" by the Esquire Magazine. He worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara with Dr. Galen Stucky on CO₂ sequestration, conversion and co-activation with methane (CH₄) until his appointment as an Assistant Professor at KAIST, South Korea in 2010. He was promoted to Associate Professor on September 2013 and jointly appointed at the Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He has been nominated twice for the teacher of the year award. Since 2020, he is a professor of chemistry at KAUST, Saudi Arabia with a research focus on nano and porous materials design and synthesis for applications in the environment, particularly for CO₂ capture and conversion. He is an Editorial Board Member at Chem, a prestigious chemistry journal by Cell Press. He also serves on the boards of Cell Reports Physical Science, ACS Applied Energy Materials, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, and Advanced Sustainable Systems. He was an editor at RSC Advances and currently editing at Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, a platinum open access journal. He has over 100 publications and 20 registered patents.