Features
Mastercard Foundation: A decade of developing change-makers
Mastercard Foundation A decade of developing change-makers Fall 2022It’s been a decade since the Mastercard Foundation (MCF) and the American University of Beirut joined forcesto provide scholarships to the best and brightest of Africa and underserved native and...
The Light of Hope
The Light of Hope Fall 2022 The streets around campus are lit again thanks to an initiative mobilized by staff from AUB’s Procurement and Contracts Administration (PCA) Department. AUB collaborated with the NGO Rebirth Beirut and Medco petroleum company as part of the...
Creative Minds
Creative Minds: Featuring original works from the American University of Beirut community Fall 2022This poem/visual artwork was created by Lara Nabil Haroun, a chemistry student at AUB. She is self-described as “a little girl in a loud world with poetry as a reminder...
Published and Produced
Published and Produced Fall 2022 It Gets Darker Short Film Written and directed by Firas Abou Fakher (BA '11) and Daniel Habib Following a traumatic incident, Lara’s childhood friend takes her for a relaxing weekend at an isolated resort. It turns out to be a trap to...
When Determination Meets Science
When Determination Meets Science Fall 2022In the video, a man labors up a snowy trail, methodically planting forearm crutches on the ground ahead of him and swinging his legs forward. He repeats the move, pausing for breath. Suddenly, he topples into a full-body fall,...
Face to Face
Face to Face: Mohamad Youssef Fall 2022For years now, MainGate has published stories about AUB staff that best exemplify being part of the AUB community. Staff members have shared their stories, including those of how their time at AUB has, for some, been life...
Uplifting Our Look
Uplifting Our Look Fall 2022“It is fitting that we open this academic year with an updated look, a fresh take on our historic identity. The distinctive new logo, baked in Berytus Red, reaffirms our identity as one of the oldest, most prestigious, and mission-oriented...
Campus Snapshots
Campus Snapshots Fall 2022
Aiducation
Features Aiducation - Frida Atallah by MainGate Staff Fall 2022Now a fourth-year medical student, Frida Atallah grew up in a small town in Mount Lebanon. For as long as she can remember, she wanted to attend AUB. “I knew that education would change my path and...
Honoring AUB’s Greatest
Honoring AUB's Greatest Fall 2022The University Medal was awarded to three remarkable individuals in AUB’s history: Professor Samir Tabet (above right), Trustee Emeritus Ali Ghandour (above center), and Professor Makhlouf Haddadin (above left). Each of these...
Degree programs, certificates, professional diplomas – Available Now at AUB Online
Degree programs, certificates, professional diplomas:Available Now at AUB Online Fall 2022AUB now offers a number of online programs and will be expanding the selection in the months and years ahead. Available programs range from short (less than one week)...
American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo, Coming in Fall 2023
American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo, Coming in Fall 2023 Fall 2022Things are buzzing in Pafos, Cyprus, where the American University of Beirut is establishing its first twin campus in the history of the university. Atlas Pantou – MAN Joint Venture, which was...
Beirut Through Their Eyes A selection of student work from their photojournalism course
Beirut Through Their Eyes: A selection of student work from their photojournalism course Fall 2022Since its invention in 1839, the camera’s ability to freeze time has earned it a unique place in society. In journalism, these “decisive moments” have shown the...
Change and Endurance: Ancient glass objects get a new lease on life and a showcase at the British Museum
Change and Endurance: Ancient glass objects get a new lease on life and a showcase at the British Museum Fall 2022Few events trigger collective grief or a heartache that spans nations more than the destruction of history and its markers. “It’s because this destruction...
Check Up: Hopes and Dreams on Ice
Check Up: Hopes and Dreams on Ice Fall 2022Survival rates for cancer have been increasing dramatically over the past half century, which means that many women and men go on to live long, healthy lives after successful treatment. Yet these therapies can have the...
The First of Their Kind: AUB’s inaugural PhD nursing graduates
The First of Their Kind: AUB's inaugural PhD nursing graduates Fall 2022Meet AUB’s first two nursing PhD graduates as they reminisce on their experiences at the Hariri School of Nursing and bring their AUB spirit to the wider world. Growing up across the...
Autopilot: How artificial intelligence is changing medicine
Autopilot: How artificial intelligence is changing medicine Fall 2022To many, artificial intelligence (AI) is the stuff of science fiction: autonomous machines, simulated realities, killer robots. Today, though, artificial intelligence is far from science fiction. In...
Students at the Forefront of Science
Students at the Forefront of Science Fall 2022Internships within the largest international scientific collaboration in history inspire our students to grow and contribute This year, three AUB students joined the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the...
We Choose to Stay – Spring 2022
Features We chose to stay Spring 2022According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 40 percent of Lebanon’s doctors and 30 percent of nurses left the country between October 2019 and November 2021. Exacerbating the loss, nearly all recent medical school...
Check Up: The safest possible hands – Spring 2022
Features Check Up:The safest possible hands by MainGate Staff Spring 2022In 2021, AUB appointed Dr. Raymond Sawaya as the Raja N. Khuri Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs. The move was surprising for many reasons, perhaps...
Sahtein – Spring 2022
Features | Health & Wellness Sahtein: Sayadieh AUBMC’s Department of Food Services Spring 2022 Sayadieh is a classic fish dish originating from fishing villages in Lebanon. The word sayadieh roughly translates to “catch,” coming from the fisherman’s catch...
Next generation sequencing – Spring 2022
Features Next generation sequencing by MainGate Staff Spring 2022“How is my patient going to respond if I find that the tumor has this or that genetic change or difference? What happens to the initial tumor after the patient has been treated?” These are...
Womanhood: From Antiquity to Modernity – Spring 2022
Features Womanhood, from antiquity to modernity By MainGate Staff Spring 2022This year, the AUB Archaeological Museum held an exhibit showcasing the power of juxtaposing antiquity with modernity. As part of AUB’s coed centennial celebrations, Nadine Panayot, curator...
Transforming through art
Transforming through artIn the best of times, support and funding for the arts can be underwhelming. During times of austerity, they can vanish. Lebanon’s historic economic crisis has battered the arts with immense difficulties as patrons and...
Year of the woman
Year of the woman 1921 The American University of Beirut opens its doors to the first cohort of women in regular degree programs, decades before many top-ranked universities worldwide. March 6, 2021 AUB kicks off a year of celebrating its...
May Ziadeh: When visions come too early
Features May Ziadeh: When Visions Come Too Early by MainGate Staff Spring 2022AUB continues to celebrate its coed centennial, having taken global leadership in admitting women in 1921. May Elias Ziadeh, prolific author of poems and books, a key figure in the...
100 Years of Coeducation – Spring 2022
Features 100 Years of Coeducation by MainGate Staff Spring 2022One hundred years ago was a time of upheaval both within and around the campus of the American University of Beirut, which had just undergone a name change from the Syrian Protestant College. The...
Experimental activism – Spring 2022
Features Experimental activism by Eric Eyges Spring 2022The legacy of the Arab Spring—that burst of activism and revolutionary activity sparked by Tunisian fruit vendor Mohammed Bouazizi’s self-immolation—is still up for debate. The common perception is that it...
Training our future teachers
Features Training our future teachers by MainGate Staff Spring 2022“The current challenges in Lebanon have increased the already urgent need for qualified and committed teachers and other educational practitioners in Lebanon,” explains Dr. Tamer Amin, associate...
The Evidence for Palestine – Spring 2022
Features The Evidence for Palestine by Eric Eyges Spring 2022“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And...
Written Word – Spring 2022
Features Written Word By MainGate Staff Spring 2022‘AŞFŪRIYYEH: A HISTORY OF MADNESS, MODERNITY, AND WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST Joelle M. Abi-Rached (BS ’02, MD ’06) shows how ‘Aşfūriyyeh’s role shifted from a missionary enterprise to a national institution with vast...
Face to Face – Maha Zouwayhed – Spring 2022
Features Face to Face - Maha Zouwayhed by MainGate Staff Spring 2022Maha Zouwayhed, Zein AUB iPark associate director and accessibility advocate, is a master at helping AUB departments reframe how they do their work, not so they can do more, but rather so they...
Online programs: A vital part of AUB Global
Features Online programs: A vital part of AUB Global By MainGate Staff Spring 2022A robust roster of online programs is an integral part of AUB’s strategic vision—VITAL 2030—and its efforts to increase the global presence and influence of the institution. Having...
AUB Thalassemia Expert Helps Drug Win FDA Approval
Features AUB Thalassemia Expert Helps Drug Win FDA Approval by MainGate Staff Fall 2021 Dr. Ali Taher, professor of medicine at AUBMC’s Division of Hematology and Oncology. In clinics across Lebanon and around the world, there is a certain kind of patient whose...
Check Up: Dr. Mona Osman El Hage, assistant professor of clinical specialty at AUBMC’s Department of Family Medicine
Features Check Up: Dr. Mona Osman El Hage, assistant professor of clinical specialty at AUBMC’s Department of Family Medicine by MainGate Staff Fall 2021 Dr. Mona Osman El Hage, Assistant Professor of Clinical Specialty at the Department of Family Medicine Q....
A Very Special Delivery: COVID-19 vaccines come to Lebanon
Features A Very Special Delivery:COVID-19 vaccines come to Lebanon by MainGate Staff Fall 2021It was in December that AUBMC first became aware of Lebanon’s intention to sign a deal to secure millions of COVID-19 vaccines, starting with the Pfizer-BioNTech...
Khabazteh?
Features Khabazteh? by MainGate Staff Fall 2021This past October, AUBMC shared a video on social media titled “The Bread Exam.” Popular Lebanese baker Um Ali stands in a spacious, well-lit kitchen in front of two wrapped pieces of dough molded in the shape of...
Ahead of the Curve: One hundred years of coeducation at AUB
Ahead of the Curve: One hundred years of coeducation at AUB Above: Double-veiled and accompanied by her husband, Ihsan Shakir (BA ’29) came to campus from Egypt in 1924 as the first Muslim woman to enroll at AUB. She expressed a belief that continues to...
Written Word – Fall 2021
Features Published & Produced By MainGate Staff Fall 2021The Arsonists’ City (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021) by Hala Alyan (BA ’08). This family saga centered on their struggles to save the ancestral home in Beirut tells the story of both a family and a region...
The Cultural Weight of Arabic Calligraphy
Features The Cultural Weight of Arabic Calligraphy by Najib Chowdhury Fall 2021Arabic calligraphy was born in reverence to writing the Qu’ran but has grown in its life outside the holy text. It exists beyond the page and is found on the domes of mosques, the...
The University Scholarship Program Celebrates its 10th Anniversary
Features The University Scholarship Program Celebrates its 10th Anniversary by Eric Eyges Fall 2021During California’s COVID-induced lockdown, Khaled Al Kurdi (BS ’16) did much of his work as a chemist from his home office in a luxury high-rise in downtown San...
Ecology of Cedars: A very long relationship
Features Ecology of Cedars - A very long relationship by Eric Eyges Fall 2021"They stood at the forest’s edge, gazing at the top of the Cedar Tree, gazing at the entrance to the forest. Where Humbaba would walk there was a trail, the roads led straight on, the...
Comprehending the Currency Crisis
Features Comprehending the Currency Crisis by Dr. Said Elfakhani, AUB professor of finance, accounting, and managerial economics, has tracked the fall of the LBP since it unhinged from the pegged dollar rate in October 2019. He spoke to us about the mysterious...
Mary Jaber Nachar
Features Mary Jaber Nachar -An AUB stalwart takes a seat in the C-Suite by MainGate Staff Fall 2021Appointed in September 2020 as Vice President for Administration, Mary Jaber Nachar is the first female to serve the university in this role. The challenges she...
Commencement Celebration
\ Features Commencement Celebration by MainGate Staff Fall 2021The COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down in many ways. That is certainly true for the Class of 2020, whose graduation was postponed over one year. In a strange twist of events, AUB’s 151st...
Lasting Notes
Features Lasting Notes by Rami Abi Zeid Fall 2021Ever since Rami Abi Zeid (BE ’21) played the violin at an AUB commencement, he planned what he would say at his own graduation celebration. Following are excerpts from his imagined speech to his classmates. ---- I hate...
Aiducation – Firas Hatoum
Features Aiducation - Firas Hatoum by MainGate Staff Fall 2021Firas Hatoum was raised in Aley, where he attended the Universal College of Aley. The son of AUB alumni who met at AUB, Firas grew up hearing stories about student life on campus and always knew that...
The Janissaries, AUB’s First All-Male Choir: A remembrance by John Makhoul (BE ’64)
Features The Janissaries, AUB’s First All-Male Choir: A remembrance by John Makhoul (BE ’64) by MainGate Staff Fall 2021Above photo - The Janissaries (left to right): Touma Yagham, Kamal Kourani, Samir Jabbour, Mishel Awad, Teddy Abdo, William Nahhas, Nadim...
Faces of Trauma
Features Faces of Trauma By Olivia Shabb, a licensed clinical psychologist and faculty member of the Department of Psychiatry at AUBMC. She has been treating patients affected by the explosion at the Beirut port. Fall 2020/Winter 2021How would you characterize the...
The Beiruti Building
Features The Beiruti Building By Eric Eyges Fall 2020/Winter 2021Take a stroll down Rue Gouraud in the afternoon and look up at the sandstone buildings painted blue or green or left their natural reddish-brown color. You might notice some of the features of the...
Check Up: Abdul Ghani Kibbi talks psoriasis
Features Check Up: Dr. Abdul Ghani Kibbi discusses psoriasis Fall 2020/Winter 2021Q. What causes psoriasis? Is it stress-related? Hereditary? Does it occur more among a certain demographic? A. We didn’t know the cause until recently. But over the past two decades, a...
The President’s Innovation Challenge
Features The President’s Innovation Challenge By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021AUB launched its first President’s Innovation Challenge during a turbulent year, in part to “assert that the will to construct is stronger than the will to destruct,” in the words of...
For intellectually challenged young adults, a step toward a brighter future
Features For intellectually challenged young adults, a step toward a brighter future By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021On October 27, 2020, the Next Step program at AUB’s Continuing Education Center celebrated the graduation of its first group of students. A...
Face to Face – The art of the possible
Features Face to Face: Wassim Abiad By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021Ask a staff member on campus about Wassim Abiad, and they are likely to mention a time he gave sound advice for a work problem or his skill in negotiating deals for AUB employees. Over thirty...
Critiquing the developing world
Features Critiquing the developing world By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021In 2013, the US Government Office of Inspector General issued an audit report of USAID Lebanon’s Developing Rehabilitation Assistance to Schools and Teacher Improvement Program (DISRATI)....
Steering the Financial Aid Ship in Choppy Seas
Features Steering the Financial Aid Ship in Choppy Seas By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021Administering student financial aid might seem like a routine job, but in this turbulent year, it is anything but. Not only is the need exponentially greater at AUB due to...
R + D – Abbas Sidaoui
Features R + D: Abbas Sidaoui Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2021/2022 Fall 2020/Winter 2021Life before his PhD: I grew up as a normal kid in a family that reveres knowledge and science. I have been hooked by the idea of having smart robots helping us with tasks...
Unchartered territory: Educators create new pathways
Unchartered territory:Educators create new pathways Early in the fall semester, within my health communication theory course, in a class focused on communication for healthcare organizations, I asked students to book access to campus for a kind of ‘treasure...
Learning a life lesson: Never give up when an emergency strikes
Features Learning a life lesson: Never give up when an emergency strikes By Rami G. Khouri and Marwan Issa Khouri is Director of Global Engagement; Adjunct Professor of Journalism; Director of Anthony Shadid Archives research project; Senior Public Policy Fellow...
Teaching and learning in the shadow of uncertainty
Features Teaching and learning in the shadow of uncertainty By Carmen Geha, associate professor of public administration at AUB, deputy director of Khaddit Beirut and Najat Aoun Saliba, professor of chemistry at AUB, executive director of Khaddit Beirut Fall...
Rubble to Mountains: Recycling to rebuild
Features Rubble to Mountains: Recycling to rebuild By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021When 100,000 tons of rubble are created in an instant, it seems inconceivable that a recycling program such as Rubble to Mountains could effectively be put in place in a timely...
A complicated disaster
Features A complicated disaster By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021When the explosion occurred at the Beirut port, a family driving through the winding streets near Gemayze was tossed around inside its vehicle. The father and his two sons, six-year-old Ahmad* and...
The view from abroad
Features The view from abroad By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021There are more Lebanese living outside than inside the country—by some estimates, there are 12 million Lebanese in the diaspora and 4 million in Lebanon. That’s been the case for so long that it’s...
When the work is personal
Features When the work is personal by Eric Eyges Fall 2020/Winter 2021Like everyone in Lebanon, the staff and volunteer corps at the Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service (CCECS) remember with photographic-like clarity where they were August 4th just after...
Sahtein – Labneh Balls
Health & Wellness Sahtein: Labneh Balls by Sara Assi (BS '11) Fall 2020/Winter 2021 Labneh balls are a perfect addition to your breakfast and dinner table, a must in every Lebanese home and a traditional ‘Mouneh’ item that any home cook can prepare....
Aiducation – Tahreer Alzaeem
Features Aiducation - Tahreer Alzaeem by MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021Tahreer Alzaeem was living in Gaza and preparing for her 12th grade final exams when she learned that she had won a full scholarship to AUB. “I did not know anything about AUB back...
Psst, have you heard about WEFRAH?
Features Psst, have you heard about WEFRAH? By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021You can’t spend much time with FAFS Dean Rabi H. Mohtar these days without hearing about the Water-Energy-Food-Renewable Resources-Health Nexus—or WEFRAH. What is WEFRAH? “It’s a...
A shattering blow to AUB’s Archaeological Museum
Features A shattering blow to AUB’s Archaeological Museum By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021On the morning following the August 4 Beirut explosion, Dr. Nadine Panayot braced for the worst as she entered Post Hall, home of AUB’s Archaeological Museum. Weeks before...
Published and Produced – Fall 2020/Winter 2021
Features Published & Produced By MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Winter 2021 The Foreigner “‘Positions!’ ‘Curtain-up!’ ‘Lights!’—blackout. That was how it felt for the cast and crew of The Foreigner in March of 2020 when a mere two weeks from opening night, lockdown...
Unseen and unspoken, the stress you need to address
Features Unseen and unspoken,the stress you need to address by MainGate Staff Fall 2020/Spring 2021“We wake up and check the numbers: the lire rate, the number of COVID cases, our body temperatures,” says Ali, a student who discovered the benefits of mental...
Aiducation – Woonkee Jo
Features Aiducation - Wonkee Jo (BS '19) by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Woonkee Jo (BS ’19) is South Korean, but he grew up in Lebanon. He is a big fan of Bliss Street: “I doubt there are many universities where there is a whole street of restaurants...
AUBMC’s PECC
Features AUBMC's PECC by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Under the supervision of Department of Family Medicine Clinical Associate Professor Umayya Musharrafieh, AUBMC's Pandemic Evaluation Clinic and Center (PECC—pictured above) was completed in less than 10...
Rana Hajjeh at WHO
Features A seasoned veteran's "novel" experience by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Rana Hajjeh (BS ’84, MD ’88) is director of Programme Management for the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, an area comprised of 583 million people in...
Testing Detroit
Features Testing Detroit By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Like many healthcare centers around the world, the Henry Ford Health System (HFHS), a sprawling network of hospitals, laboratories, and pharmacies spread across the Detroit metro area, has had to shift gears...
The university experience
Features The University Experience by Carmen Geha, PhD (BA ’06, MA ’08) Dr. Geha is founding director of the Education for Leadership in Crisis program. She is an assistant professor of public administration, leadership, and organizational development. She is...
SPC to AUB
Features What's in a name? SPC becomes AUB by Barbara Rosica Spring/Summer 2020 This year marks the centennial of an event many years in the making. On November 18, 1920, the New York State Board of Regents certified changing the corporate name of the Syrian...
The hope and promise of AUB students
The hope and promise of AUB studentsI am Palestinian and have a wonderful family. I dreamed when I was a child of finding a place where I felt like I belong. Never did I think that that place might be AUB. To be honest, I feel guilty being at AUB. It is a privilege...
Stranded on campus
Features Stranded on Campus By Eric Eyges Spring/Summer 2020 Like most of us, Oussema Ksiaa (BA expected ’20), a Tunisian MEPI scholar at AUB studying political science, didn’t know what to make of the novel coronavirus at first. He read the news like everyone else,...
R + D – Mahdi Saleh
I grew up in Beirut and spent my summer vacations in southern Lebanon, where I enjoyed being close to nature and wildlife. I have always loved science and was curious about how everything works. I earned BE and ME degrees in computer and communication engineering from the Islamic University of Lebanon (IUL) in 2012 and 2015.
Published & Produced
With vivid storytelling, extensive research, and on-the-ground reporting, Kim Ghattas—journalist, author, and AUB trustee—seamlessly weaves together history, geopolitics, and culture to deliver a widely praised account of the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, born from the sparks of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and fueled by American policy.
A virologist speaks
n an interview last April, Nada Melhem discussed the pandemic. She explained that COVID-19 (“CO” for corona, “VI” for virus, “D” for disease, “19” for year originated) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is genetically related to the coronavirus responsible for the SARS outbreak of 2003.
Two different kinds of contamination
Noor Jaber Chehayeb (MPH ’17) was at her apartment in Rabat, Morocco, when the COVID-19 lockdown went into effect. She’d arrived in the country five days earlier as a newly appointed weapons contamination delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), after having spent two years with the Lebanese Red Cross.
A perfect storm of data
Nasser Yassin, interim director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI), is leading a team within the IFI’s Governance and Policy Lab to gather socioeconomic metrics from a wide variety of sources, synthesize them, and ultimately transform them into digestible policy briefs and infographics.
A public hospital rises to the challenge
Behind the Ministry of Health building along the main thoroughfare that leads south from downtown Beirut sits Rafic Hariri University Hospital (RHUH). A civil war-era institution once considered the last resort of the poor and uninsured has since become the epicenter of COVID-19 testing and treatment.
Lowering the cost of storing solar power with chemistry
In the Chemistry Building near the northwestern rim of campus, hidden among the trees, sits Lara Halaoui’s lab, the site of exciting new scholarship on renewable energy. Halaoui, a chemist, is considering how the energy captured in solar cells might be stored for future use in a cost-effective way.
Virus hunter
Ghazi Kayali is in a cave in the Beqaa Valley trailed by a team of filmmakers shooting the mini-series Pandemics for Netflix. They’re pointing their night vision cameras at stalactites dripping water, accentuating the silence.
Ventilators made to order
After LBCI aired a report on Technica’s ventilator initiative, the firm began receiving requests from across the Middle East and Africa. “All the big companies that make ventilators are tied up with production for their own countries,” and prices are volatile and rising.
CLIMAT
The Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences (FAFS) which has a long history of supporting agriculture in Lebanon, is helping to nudge the sector in the right direction by working in concert with international development partners to train small-scale farmers and agricultural laborers and connect them with domestic and eventually international markets.
Check Up with Samir Fakhri
In Lebanon, the referral patterns are different than those in the US. Here, people come to the super specialist right away—even with, say, a cold, they’ll go right to the ENT doctor. Ideally, the common cold and other basic problems should be seen first by a general practitioner, and only referred to the specialist or super specialist if the issue is complicated or treatment resistant.
Abla Sibai wins the 2020 L’Oreal- UNESCO For Women in Science Award
Professor of Epidemiology Abla Sibai is the recipient of the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science (FWIS) Award for Africa and the Arab States. She was recognized for her pioneering research and advocacy to improve healthy aging in low- and middle-income countries and for the impact of her work on health and social policy programs.
Reflections on Zoom, zombies, and the online learning curve
Low-intensity panic was my immediate reaction when AUB recently asked its students to remain at home to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus, and to continue all courses via remote teaching/learning online. How in the world would I give my twice-a-week, 2.5-hour-long, hands-on reporting and writing seminars in narrative and opinion writing?
Face to Face: Imagine, believe, achieve—the making of a broadcast studio
Features Face to Face: Imagine, believe, achieve—the making of a broadcast studio by Alison Freeland Spring/Summer 2020 Unusual times can inspire unusual solutions. Joseph Azar, manager of AUB’s audio, video, and multimedia production, is especially skilled at...
Feminist Forum on Climate Change
Former president of Ireland Mary Robinson and founder and president of the Women’s Learning Partnership Mahnaz Afkhami convene a feminist forum for climate justice.
Rededication of Penrose Hall
A 21st-century renovation for a beloved dormitory is completed, coming with a LEED Gold certification and remembrance of an impactful figure in AUB’s history.
Zein AUB iPark
The newly-built Talal and Madiha Zein AUB Innovation Park (Zein AUB iPark), recalls the offices of tech giants like Google and Facebook and is meant to inspire the same kind of innovative, digitally-focused entrepreneurship.
Yo Yo Ma at AUB
In late August, Yo-Yo Ma returned to the AUB campus as part of the Bach Project, an initiative he launched in 2018 to perform Bach’s six Cello Suites, each of which has six movements, in 36 locations around the world, and to start local and global conversations to address pressing cultural issues.
R + D – Riccardo Paredi
PhD candidate Ricardo Paredi characterizes his journey from Italy to Denmark to Cairo to AUB as an attempt at overcoming ‘otherness.’ His focus is ancient Sufi texts.
Pursuits
The use of plastic mulch is very common in agriculture during the growing season. At the end of season, it is plowed into the ground or thrown away, forming part of a massive dump of plastic into the ocean. Substituting shredded office wastepaper for plastic sheets has proved to be more efficient.
Published and Produced
Raja Srour (BS ’65, MD ’69) is both a highly successful cosmetic surgeon with his own practice in Los Angeles, California, and an accomplished artist. He and other artists and writers from the AUB community put their works on display.
Protest Journal
During October and November of 2019, as the Lebanese civil uprising gathered force, we canvassed students, faculty, and artists from the AUB community to get a sense of a significant historical moment.