chairman and chief executive officer of Petrofac International Ltd., managing director of Petrofac UK Ltd., and managing director of Desert Line Projects (DLP) in Muscat, Oman.

Carol Bellamy is president and chief executive officer of World Learning, a nonprofit international organization that promotes international and intercultural understanding worldwide through education and development. She is formerly the executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), director of the United States Peace Corps, and managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. She was named one of the “100 Most Powerful Women in the World” by FORBES Magazine in 2004.

Carlos Ghosn is the president and chief executive officer of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Renault S.A., and a director at Alcoa Incorporated. He is a former director of IBM and Sony and was chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Michelin North America, Inc., from 1990 to 1996. Ghosn was made commander of the British Empire in 2006. He received an honorary doctorate from AUB in 2003.

Gabriel Rebeiz (BS ’82) is a leader in research and development of the technology used in ultra small radio frequency and micro-electromechanical systems (RF MEMS). He is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, San Diego. In 1991 he was the recipient of the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award.

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IAC Symposium 2007: “Act Two, Misunderstanding, Misinterpretation, Misinformation— Education versus Ignorance”

In celebration of AUB’s 140th anniversary and the successful end of the Campaign for Excellence, AUB’s International Advisory Council (IAC) held a symposium at the New York Historical Society on November 15, 2007. Dr. Richard A. Debs, chairman of the IAC, introduced the evening’s discussion on “our favorite topic, the Middle East.” And why call it “Act Two”? “We thought we’d use the same title again because unfortunately, not much has changed in five years,” said Debs in his introduction. Lakhdar Brahimi, former undersecretary- general, United Nations and director’s visitor at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University; Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation; Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; and Jim Wolfensohn, former president, World Bank, spoke during the hour-long event. (A full transcript of the presentations and Q&A session covering a range of topics including the role of America in Afghanistan and Iraq, US-Iranian relations, and the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, may be found at MainGate online.) A reception and dinner followed, during which Dr. Thomas Q. Morris, chairperson of the Board of Trustees, presented the AUB University Medal to Dr. Kamal A. Shair honoring him for his leadership of AUB’s successful Campaign for Excellence.

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IFI: Peacemaking on Three Continents

The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy welcomed former UN peace mediator Alvaro de Soto to AUB on October 22 where he gave a public lecture, “Lessons Learned from a Quarter Century of Peacemaking on Three Continents.” De Soto argued that the United Nations has not been playing the role of mediator in the Middle East, but rather a peripheral, shepherding role. De Soto’s lecture is the first of ten Bill and Sally Hambrecht Distinguished Peacemakers Lectures that the IFI will be organizing at AUB. The series is funded by venture capitalist and AUB Trustee Bill Hambrecht and his wife Sally Hambrecht. Transcripts and audio files of IFI events are available on-line.

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From the Faculties

FHS

Evaluating HIV/AIDS Programs in MENA

The Faculty of Health Sciences organized a workshop on HIV/AIDS at AUB September 17-21. The workshop, which was funded by the Ford Foundation’s Cairo office, provided training on program monitoring and quality assessment for activists involved in HIV/AIDS programs for young people in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). NGO representatives, educators, and members of public institutions from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, and Palestine participated in the five-day workshop in which AUB researchers and health care professionals, including Jocelyn De Jong, Mayada Kanj, Rima Afifi Soweid, Kassem Kasak, and Danielle Khoury, provided training on how to set goals and objectives and design interventions for their HIV/AIDS programs.

Bedouin Health Project

The CRPH has received a grant of $326,627 from the European Commission to fund a project to improve access and quality of health care for Bedouins in Jordan and Lebanon. This three-year project on Bedouin reproductive and child health is a collaboration between CRPH and Oxford University’s Dawn Chatty, the deputy director of the Refugee Studies Center. Basic health provision for rural and pastoral peoples in the Middle East has been difficult to provide. The estimated twenty to twenty-five thousand Beka’a Bedouins who are descended from the Bedouin tribes of the Syrian Desert are mostly domicile pastoralists, with the exception of seasonal internal migration. The Bedouin community uses private and public local health services available for the rural population. This project seeks to improve access to, and quality of, reproductive health care in partnership with local providers.

The first year of the project includes gathering data from the rural health centers and conducting interviews with all the stakeholders in health care provision. The second phase involves preparing a report (in both Arabic and English) and carrying out workshops to share and discuss the findings with stakeholders in order to devise and pilot proper capacitybuilding interventions.

Mobilizing Help for Better Health

The Wellcome Trust, UK, has awarded the Center for Research on Population Health a grant of $410,406 to support a three-year intervention study on mental health and unexplained symptoms of gynecological morbidity among low-income women living in the suburbs of Beirut.

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FM

School of Nursing Receives Landmark Accreditation

The Board of the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) in the United States granted the School of Nursing’s BSN and MSN programs full accreditation for a five-year term, effective October 13, 2007, thus making them the first nursing programs to receive CCNE accreditation outside the United Sates. The granting of CCNE accreditation, which comes at the end of a two-year international peer assessment, recognizes that AUB’s nursing programs have effectively met all international professional standards essential for nursing education at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

FEA

A Very Real Virtual Instrumentation Center for Excellence

The Faculty of Engineering and Architecture in collaboration with National Instruments (NI) recently founded the Virtual Instrumentation Center of Excellence at AUB. The center will enable students to use modern professional technology to expand their classroom knowledge and implement engineering concepts, namely in areas of control and instrumentation, DSP (digital signal processor), RF (radio frequency) telecommunications, and mechatronics. The center includes more than 14 teaching and research labs on campus in the fields of electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering.

FAS

Discovering Ancient Sites

Led by AUB Professor of Archaeology Helen Sader, a group of AUB archaeology students recently discovered for themselves the Bronze Age site of Tell-Fadous. The 5,000 year-old site is located on the northern coastal area between Kfarabeeda and Batroun. A former coastal farmer’s village, Tell- Fadous’ remains recall a lively trade and farming community. “The excavations have a double purpose: the scientific investigation of a Lebanese coastal site and to give AUB students the opportunity to meet the fieldwork requirement for their degree,” says Sader. Each season an average of eight AUB graduate and undergraduate students participate in the excavations (which started in 2001) and last for four weeks, usually every summer. “The last two summers the excavations did not take place because of the local situation; nevertheless, the project is still going on,” she adds.

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AUBMC News

AUBMC Receives US Accreditation

The American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) formally received full accreditation by the Joint Commission International (JCI) on January 2, 2008.

AUBMC has a long tradition with JCI; in 1956 it was the first hospital located outside the United States to be accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. Until 1986 the hospital was repeatedly surveyed and maintained its accreditation. AUBMC recently applied to JCI for reaccreditation as part of a systematic and institution-wide initiative to improve patient care. JCI is a division of Joint Commission Resources which is the largest accreditor of health care organizations in the United States, surveying nearly 20,000 health care programs through its voluntary accreditation process.

“The Joint Commission International Accreditation has reviewed the survey findings for the American University of Beirut Medical Center. It is with great pleasure that I inform you of the decision to grant accreditation to the American University of Beirut Medical Center. Congratulations to you, and all the other leaders and staff of the American University of Beirut Medical Center in achieving this recognition of your commitment to provide quality care on an ongoing basis,” wrote Ann K. Jacobson, executive director of International Accreditation at JCI in a letter to Dr. Nadim Cortas, VP for Medical Affairs and Raja N. Khuri Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. “The Joint Commission International Accreditation Hospital Standards are intended to stimulate continuous, systematic and organization-wide improvement in daily performance and in the outcomes of patient care. The citizens of Beirut should be proud the American University of Beirut Medical Center is focusing on this most challenging goal—to continuously raise quality to higher levels,” she continued. Members of the survey team expressed their opinion that AUBMC clearly ranks in the top 10 of the 142 hospitals that JCI has accredited outside the United States.

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Testing a New Cure for MS

On October 3, neuroscientists at AUBMC started a pioneering clinical trial to test bone marrow stem cell therapy on individuals suffering from advanced multiple sclerosis. The trial is one of the first to be carried out by an international task force that was created almost a year ago. AUB professor and neuroscientist Bassem Yamout, who is a member of the European Charcot Foundation Expert Group on the use of human stem cells for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, is leading the AUB trial. Assistant Dean for Research Ali Bazarbachi and his team will be collaborating with Dr. Yamout.

Lollipops Help the Medicine Go Down

After conducting extensive research on whether sedation or lidocaine lollipops offer more effective pain relief for people needing upper gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures, researchers at AUBMC found that those lollipops are more effective. It turns out that the lollipops that are made with the anesthetic lidocaine eliminate the need to sedate patients and are much more effective than lidocaine spray. Dr. Assaad Soweid, one of the doctors involved in the study, says, “The lollipop proved to be a safe and well-tolerated topical anesthetic.”

Faculty News

Hope for Working Children

AUB Professor Iman Nuwayhid recently received a $200,000 grant from the National Institute of Health to conduct a two-year pioneering study on the exposure and neurotoxic effects of organic solvents in adolescents exposed to harsh working conditions in Lebanon. Conducted in collaboration with the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), the study is sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the United States. Nuwayhid hopes “the findings of this study will provide needed evidence to guide national and global policies on child labor and solvent neurotoxicity.”

Current Research

Finding Therapies for Leukemia Patients

Wafica Itani, who will be working under the supervision of Professor Hala Muhtasib, is enrolled in AUB’s PhD program in cell and molecular biology.

Wafica Itani’s PhD research at AUB builds on a project she worked on with Professor Hala Muhtasib and Dr. Ali Bazarbachi (Medicine) as a research assistant: an investigation of how thymoquinone (a black seed extract) induces apoptosis (programmed cell death) in leukemic cells. Experiments done in Muhtasib’s laboratory have shown that this natural, easily available, and relatively non-toxic drug induces programmed cell death in a variety of cancers including skin, colon, osteosarcoma, and leukemia. Itani also plans to look at the main cellular receptors (both membrane and nucleocytoplasmic) that mediate thymoquinone’s effect. To do so, she will be studying the anti-cancer effects of thymoquinone in an “in vivo” mouse model, where—as she explains—“we will be initiating leukemia in mice through a xenograft and a chemicallyinduced model.” Muhtasib is quick to point out, however, that Itani’s PhD research will “involve more than just a continuation of her previous work. We expect—and we should expect— more from doctoral students. They need to produce original research—a body of work that contributes to our understanding of a particular problem or issue.”

When asked what prompted her to focus her research in this area, Itani mentions the growing trend in recent years toward using “less toxic and more effective plant-derived treatment modalities in leukemia.” Itani’s goal is to identify effective and targeted therapies for patients with leukemia.

Itani is one of three PhD students in cell and molecular biology this year. Muhtasib says that the goal of the department is to maintain the quality of its graduate programs while expanding the dimensions of the PhD program as resources and student quality allow. “Right now,” she says, “we measure the success of the program one student at a time.”

Before earning her MSc degree from AUB, Wafica Itani received a BS in biology and environmental sciences from Beirut Arab University (2003 with distinction) and a BA in archaeology from the Lebanese University (2005). As a master’s student at AUB, she worked with Professor Muhtasib, Professor Makhluf Haddadin (Chemistry), and Dr. Fadi Geara (Medicine).

Student News

Students Head to US as Part of University Exchange Program

FEA student Maher Qanso and Nicolas Khattar, from AUB’s Faculty of Health Sciences, were chosen to spend four months in the United States as part of the University Exchange Program for the Near East and South Asia launched by the US State Department and administered by the US Embassy in Lebanon. The goal of the program is to encourage dialogue and cultural exchange.

Maher Qanso went to Jackson State University in Mississippi while Nicolas Khattar headed to Greenville Institute for Technology in South Carolina in August 2007 where they spent four months living with American families and sharing stories about life in Lebanon.

Enfin un ange: Med Student Wins Best Play Scenario

Enfin un ange (Finally an angel), a play written by first year medical student Nicolas Khattar, won first prize for best play scenario at Manuscrit. com. The website provides interactive information about literary and cultural life and invites talented writers to submit and publish their writings in several languages. Nicolas Khattar describes his play as a social satire in which he “tries to portray the vices of his compatriots.” His strong passion for writing dates back to elementary school.

Gifts/Scholarships

USAID Provides Support for 20 Franklin Scholarships at AUB

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing support for 20 need- and meritbased scholarships at AUB. The full tuition scholarships are named for Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), a cel ebrated American scientist, inventor, political philosopher, journalist, and diplomat who made significant contributions to science and learning. He is also one of the “founding fathers” of the United States and a drafter of its Declaration of Independence. The scholarship recipients were announced during a ceremony on October 30 attended by US Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman, President John Waterbury, Dean of Student Affairs Maroun Kisirwani, and Director of Financial Aid Salim Kanaan.

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Reviews

Laughter under the Bombs: Diaries of a Dramatherapist

(Authorhouse Press: 2007) by Sharif Abdunnur and Jennifer S. Hartley.

Laughter Under the Bombs serves as both a living testimony to the horrors of surviving under war conditions and as a drama therapy handbook. It documents—day by day—the therapist’s experience as the July 2006 war unfolds, and highlights successful attempts to set up a safe haven for displaced children and teens through drama workshops. Workshops become a means of helping children come to terms with the mental and psychological wounds caused by the horrors of war.

Sharif Abdunnur is a fine arts instructor at AUB’s Department of Fine Arts and Art History.

Reflections of My I

(Cadmus Project: 2007)
by Shahe Kazarian
This compilation of Armenian and English poems written during the last three decades addresses themes of multiculturalism, human rights, and collectivist and individualist identities. The poems reflect a deep concern for history, morality, citizenry, and the choice between war and peace.

Shahe Kazarian is a clinical professor of psychology at AUB.

Applied Mechatronics

(Oxford University Press: 2007)
by Fuad Mrad and Ahmad Smaili
This textbook offers programs in applied mechatronics and blends theoretical treatments of the subject with its practical implementation. A companion website for instructors and students that includes lectures and a solution manual can be found at www.oup.com/us/smailimrad.

Fuad Mrad is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at AUB. Ahmad Smaili is a former AUB professor of mechanical engineering.

Introduction to Consciousness

(Palgrave Macmillan Press: 2007)
by Arne Dietrich
In addition to providing a theoretical and research based overview, Dietrich’s textbook is inspired by the major disciplines that make up the study of consciousness, including neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy. The text places strong emphasis on empirical evidence and is designed as an introductory overview of the field of consciousness.

Arne Dietrich is associate professor of psychology and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at AUB.

When Silence Speaks

(Pearson/Longman: 2007)
by Amy Zenger, Nicole Khoury, and Natasha Frank
This textbook, which was created specifically for AUB English 203 students, contains readings on contemporary issues in the Middle East and around the world that reference issues, places, and people of relevance to students in the Middle East. The theoretical essays, poems, and stories collected in this volume will resonate with students, inspire conversation, and encourage critical reading, discussion, and writing.

The Quantum Beat: Principles and Applications of Atomic Clocks, 2nd Edition

(Springer NY Press: June 2007)
by Fuad Major
The book surveys the wide range of understanding of the physical principles underlying the workings of quantum based atomi.