Spring/Summer 2020
Letters
From the President
In this time of turmoil and change, we should all take comfort in the promise of this generation of students in Lebanon. I firmly believe that they will play a pivotal role in advancing fair and just leadership in Lebanon, the Arab world, Africa, and beyond.
From the Editor
As I write this, I am sitting in front of the only window to the world most of us have in the summer of 2020. As potential hosts to a deadly virus, we are homebound, masked, and socially distanced. The COVID-19 pandemic has limited our freedom to mingle and congregate while deepening our understanding of connection and connectedness.
Features
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
Features R + D - Mahdi Saleh PhD (expected '20) Electrical and Computer Engineering by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Life before his PhD: I grew up in Beirut and spent my summer vacations in southern Lebanon, where I enjoyed being close to nature and wildlife. I...
Published & Produced
Features Published & Produced By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Fourteen, Traditional Emirati Talli thread and acrylic paint on wood, 80x80cm, Year 2020 Artist Noura Ali-Ramahi (BBA ’97): Learn more about Noura in this issue’s “StandingOUTstanding” feature.The...
A virologist speaks
Features A virologist speaks by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020In 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...
Two different kinds of contamination
Features Two different kinds of contamination by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 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...
A perfect storm of data
Features A perfect storm of data by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020The dual crises of COVID-19 and economic collapse are altering the fabric of Lebanese society in unforeseen ways, playing off one another. The news media relentlessly reports on various...
A public hospital rises to the challenge
Isolation rooms at Rafic Hariri University Hospital.Features A public hospital rises to the challenge By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Behind the Ministry of Health building along the main thoroughfare that leads south from downtown Beirut sits Rafic Hariri...
Lowering the cost of storing solar power with chemistry
A solar water heater on a rooftop. Features "Lowering the cost of storing solar power with chemistry" by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 In the Chemistry Building near the northwestern rim of campus, hidden among the trees, sits Lara Halaoui’s lab, the site...
Virus hunter
A still of Ghazi Kayali in a cave in the Beqa'a Valley from the Netflix series Pandemics. Features "Virus Hunter" by Eric Eyges Spring/Summer 2020Ghazi Kayali is in a cave in the Beqaa Valley trailed by a team of filmmakers shooting the mini-series Pandemics for...
Ventilators made to order
Technica's mountaintop headquarters. Features Ventilators made to order by Eric Eyges Spring/Summer 2020 Around mid-March, Tony Haddad (BE '75) was at home watching a news program on MTV Lebanon that made clear the dire situation in which the country might find...
CLIMAT
Features Helping Lebanese farmers get on track By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Many believe that the vast majority of the agricultural sector in Lebanon operates in ways that are unsustainable, exploitative, and economically unsound. Agricultural laborers are...
Check Up with Samir Fakhri
Features Check Up with Samer Fakhri by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Dr. Fakhri is professor and the chair of Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at AUBMC. Can you describe your area of specialty? My field is otorhinolaryngology—head...
Abla Sibai wins the 2020 L’Oreal- UNESCO For Women in Science Award
Features Abla Sibai wins the 2020 L’Oreal UNESCO For Women in Science Award by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Professor 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...
Reflections on Zoom, zombies, and the online learning curve
Features Reflections on Zoom, zombies, and the online learning curve By Rami G. Khouri Senior public policy fellow, Issam Fares Institute; director of the Anthony Shadid Archives project; journalist in residence, Media Studies Program Spring/Summer 2020Low-intensity...
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...
Alumni & Friends
Father and son Murad and Jamil Baroody, legends in pharmacy and diplomacy
A white sandstone tombstone from Beirut. The deceased, two Christian priests, combined their pastoral mission with the function of notaries (νομικοί). As such, they were probably responsible for writing private documents in accordance with the law under the authority...
Professors @Work
Professors @WorkMainGate asked AUB’s newly appointed Director of Global Engagement Rami Khouri about his new series of interviews with AUB professors. “In October 2020, AUB launched Professors@ Work, a 20-minute podcast audio interview where I speak with...
WAAAUB By the Numbers
Alumni & Friends WAAAUB By the Numbers by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Number of AUB alumni: 70,000 Living in: 115 countries; on six continents Number of WAAAUB chapters or branches: 65 Oldest alumni chapter: AUB Alumni Association (AAA), established...
In Memoriam
In Memoriam Spring/Summer 2020 Nasri Salti (BBA ’44) was born in Haifa, Palestine in 1924, and passed away on May 15, 2020 at the age of 96 in Toronto, Canada. He had a long, successful career manufacturing soap, olive oil and tobacco products throughout the...
WAAAUB Around the Globe
WAAAUB Around the Globe During the pandemic, AUB alumni around the world stayed connected in instructive and inventive ways. Here is a sampling of discussions, webinars, and online classes with strong alumni participation in a wide range of topics including: the...
WAAAUB Elections and Appointments
WAAAUB Elections and Appointments Spring/Summer 2020 Abu Dhabi Chapter President: Wael Abdul Malak (BA ’94, MBA ’99, MMB ’03; Vice President: Ghassan Abdel Rahman (BEN ’88, EMBA ’06); Treasurer: Roger El Feghali (BEN ’94); Secretary: Joseph Atallah (BBA ’87);...
Mobilizing AUB’s worldwide community of ambassadors
Haya Imam, WAAAUB Advisory Board Vice ChairAlumni & Friends Mobilizing AUB's worldwide community of ambassadors By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020“We need the help of the Advisory Board and all alumni—especially today,” President Fadlo R. Khuri remarked during...
A Lifetime of Service
Alumni & Friends A Lifetime of Service: Karim Nasser By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 The prairie land of Saskatchewan seems to stretch forever. “You can see for a hundred miles,” says Dr. Karim “Kay” Nasser. “You can’t imagine how long you can see.” Nasser...
StandingOutStanding with Noura Ali-Ramahi
Alumni & Friends Taking risks and giving back by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Noura Ali-Ramahi Born in Lebanon in 1976 and grew up there (1976) Moved to Dubai (1989) Graduated from AUB (1997) Hosted her first exhibition: A Picture and a Thousand...
Class Notes
Class Notes Spring/Summer 2020 Mona Bu-Azza Bawarshi (BBA ’70, MBA ’77) is the CEO of Gezairi Transport, a company that her father founded, and vice president of RDCL World. An active philanthropist, Mona is a proud member of the Board of Trustees of the...
Alumni Profile with Nemr
Features Uniting people around common truths By Alison Freeland Spring/Summer 2020“I’m Lebanese, so I’m resourceful,” says Nemr Abou Nassar (BBA ’05), an international stand-up comic who goes by his first name alone. “When people ask me what they need to do to be in...
Legends and Legacies – the Kurani family
Esther Kurani, co-founder of the AUB Folk Dance Festival, and Habib Kurani, AUB's first registrar and grandchild of Habib Amin Kurani.Alumni & Friends Legends & Legacies - about the Kurani family By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Five generations of the...