By Dina Al-Amood | Staff Writer
Three American University of Beirut (AUB) alumni won the Great Arab Minds (GAM) Award in its first edition. Dr. Fadel Adib, Dr. Niveen Khashab, and Professor Lina Ghotmeh were honored alongside other distinguished winners in the inaugural ceremony at Dubai’s Museum of the Future.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai, founded the award’s framework in 2022 “to identify and acknowledge the most brilliant Arab minds for their lifelong achievements and work, in the specified fields.” The six categories of distinction are engineering and technology, medicine, economics, architecture and design, natural sciences, and literature and arts.
Exactly half the awards were given to AUB alumni, surpassing the frequency of winners studying at any other regional or international academic institution. So, what should we know about the Lebanese winners making history?
First, Dr. Fadel Adib received the GAM Award in engineering and technology. He earned his BE in Computer and Communications Engineering. In 2011, he graduated with the highest GPA in the AUB’s digitally recorded history. Can anything be more impressive than that? Well, If Dr. Adib’s career can speak for itself, it would easily say, “Yes, it can.”
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he pursued a master’s degree and received the 2013 William A. Martin Award for Best Master’s Thesis in Computer Science. Later, his doctoral dissertation at MIT, “See through Wall,” was named one of the best 50 transformative contributions from the university in computer science in the past 50 years. In 2015, Forbes titled him as one of the magazine’s “30 Under 30.”
His work is mainly focused on expanding the possibilities of wireless sensing technology. From enabling motion detection behind walls to harnessing energy from ocean waves, Dr. Adib’s inventions have numerous applications in engineering and medicine. He has over 80 US patents to protect those inventions.
Today, he is an associate professor at the MIT Media Lab and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). He is also the CEO and co-founder of Cartesian Systems and the founding director of the Signal Kinetics Research Group.
AUB President Fadlo R. Khuri commented on his win, saying, “I recently had the privilege of spending several hours visiting with Fadel at MIT and can state with conviction that all of us at the American University of Beirut are enormously proud that he has been singled out for this distinction.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Niveen Khashab received the GAM Award in the Natural Science Category. She earned her BS in Chemistry at AUB in 2002, after which she attained her Ph.D. at the University of Florida. Dr. Khashab is now a professor of chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Program at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
Dr. Khashab has obtained 9 patents for her nanocomposites and membrane synthesis inventions. Her research focuses on synthesizing and applying programmable nanomaterials. The controlled release and delivery mechanisms of nanomaterials have been revolutionary in the last decade for healthcare, pharmaceutical, industrial, and environmental sectors.
She has already been internationally celebrated for her accomplishments, winning the Crow Award for Creativity in Organic Chemistry, the AlMaraai Innovation Award for Bio-nanotechnology, and the L’Oréal-Unesco Women in Science Award.
In her acceptance speech, Dr. Khashab thanked her alma mater, AUB, for “the best scientific upbringing.” She dedicated this award to the late Jordanian Professor Makhlouf Haddadin, “I dedicate this prize to his precious soul. Without his guidance and support, I would not be here today!” Dr. Fadlo Khuri described Professor Haddadin as “an eminent scholar and a good friend who is a legend at our university.” On Dr. Khashab’s win, he said, “She is a stellar scholar, one whose outstanding work and humility reflects well on her and her alma mater.”
Finally, Architect Lina Ghotmeh, who earned her BArch with distinction in 2003, won the GAM award in the Architecture & Design Category. Influenced by her upbringing in Lebanon, and particularly the war-torn Beirut of her childhood, her architectural style integrates the location’s environment and history into design. In its announcement, GAM highlighted her “unique approach” of sensitivity to history and materiality. The central motifs her designs revolve around are renewal and sustainability.
In AUB, Ghotmeh’s academic excellence earned her the Fawzi W. Azar Award as a scholarship. Her diploma project won the Areen Prize. Beyond AUB, she earned her master’s degree and taught as an associate professor at the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris between 2007 and 2015.
Since then, Lina Ghotmeh has led her own practice based in Paris. The most noteworthy of her culturally and environmentally sensitive projects are the Hermès manufacturing facility in Normandy, the Stone Garden tower in Beirut, and the Estonian National Museum in Tartu, Estonia.
In her acceptance speech, Ghotmeh reflected on her time at her alma mater, saying, “I hold my years between 1998 and 2003 studying architecture at AUB close to my heart and share this prize with the exceptional faculty who continuously contribute to grow passions in our field.” She also noted the significance of this award for the MENA region, “This is a great initiative to support meaningful work and talent from our region. Such public initiatives along with education play a pivotal role in gearing our societies towards more stable and prosperous futures.”
In his public statement, President Fadlo Khuri praised Lina Ghotmeh’s “contributions to the world of architecture” as “seminal, widely renowned, and profoundly inspirational.” He added, “All of us are enormously proud that she has received yet another meaningful recognition for her outstanding contributions. She is an architect of great originality and purpose.”
Overall, the Great Arab Minds Award gives great hope to many Arab scholars about the future of the region’s development. The ceremony reminded many of the Arab region’s status as the cradle of human civilization. The region has also continually exported brilliant minds across the world despite the geopolitical conflicts that have impeded its development. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid pointed this out: “If people work hard, they can reignite a great civilization. I am confident that the Arab people have a lot of potential for creating an eminent civilization.”
References:
https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/government/2023/12/07/lebanese-mit-professor-named-winner-of-great-arab-minds-award/
https://www.aub.edu.lb/advancement/AlumniRelations/Pages/AUB_alumnus_Fadel_Adib_receives_prestigious_2023_Great_Arab_Minds_Award-.aspx
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Niveen-Khashab
https://english.aawsat.com/varieties/4741876-lebanese-prof-niveen-khashab-wins-great-arab-minds-award-natural-sciences
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/hub/p/niveen-m-khashab
https://www.archdaily.com/office/lina-ghotmeh-architecture
https://www.designboom.com/tag/lina-ghotmeh/