Professors at Work

Tenured Professor of Pediatric Neurology and Neurogenetics Rose Mary Boustani has spent decades at AUB and Duke University tracking down the individual molecules, genes, and cells that cause rare childhood and adolescent diseases that had long been seen as incurable. She explains how she and her colleagues achieved several breakthroughs that have improved and prolonged the lives of many children, and patented several discoveries on the way. Her next frontier at AUM Medical Center is how we can best respond to autism, while also researching and testing new drugs.

Dr. Omar Sirri, affiliated scholar at AUB’s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, recently received his PhD degree at the University of Toronto. He discusses his years of research on the symbolism, roles, and fate of security checkpoints across Baghdad since the 2003 invasion, and how they link to issues of identity, sectarianism and power in Iraq and the wider region.

Professor Rima Habib, Chair of the Department of Environmental Health at the Faculty of Health Sciences, has spent decades studying the health and living conditions of low-income marginalized communities in Lebanon. Her latest research reveals the many dangers facing Syrian refugee working children aged 8-18, including injury, verbal and physical abuse, and even death. The insecurities that plague poor Syrian refugees also are common among Palestinian refugees and low-income Lebanese. They all require a coordinated policy response from multiple state and international agencies, with strict enforcement, which are often elusive.

See this short video by Rima Habib and her team that brings to life the Syrian refugee working children in Lebanon and their difficult conditions.

Assistant Professor of Medicine Carine Sakr-Chaptini, Director of the AUB Expert Committee on COVID-19, explains how she and her colleagues are continuously humbled to keep learning about how the virus operates and how people react to measures to contain it. Science and data drive AUB’s policy response to protect its community and all Lebanon, but collaboration across sectors and medical personnel is also critical.

Fadi El-Jardali, tenured Associate Professor of Health Policy and Systems in AUB’s Faculty of Health Sciences, founded and still leads the pioneering Knowledge To Policy (K2P) center at AUB, which identifies how scholars can channel their research knowledge to positively influence policy-making. This effort is all the more vital in emergency situations like today’s pandemic, as he explains, but also in routine efforts such as the drive to control tobacco use in society.

Dr George Saliba, Professor and Director of AUB’s Farouk Jabre Center for Arabic and Islamic Science and Philosophy, explains how his research identifies how Arab and Greek scholars and philosophers jointly articulated new knowledge that went on to spark the European Renaissance. His research also offers new ideas on why European powers rose and Arab-Islamic-Indian-Chinese and other societies declined after the discovery of the New World’s gold and silver.

Professor Alan Shihadeh, dean of the Maroun Simaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, explains what he and his colleagues have learned in AUB’s Aerosols Research Lab over the last 20 years. From water pipe smoking to Beirut’s air after the port explosion and mass use of diesel generators, aerosols are often dangerous to our health, he notes. He also talks about how the knowledge they generate can help shape public policies in Lebanon and around the world.

Sari Hanafi, AUB Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Islamic Studies program, is also the President of the International Sociological Association. In this episode he explains his journey from analyzing knowledge production in the Arab region to how scientific research can reach policy-makers, and to his current research on why a deep dialog is needed between religion and the social sciences.

Associate Professor of Education Rima Karami describes how her on-the-ground research in primary and secondary schools in Lebanon and other Arab countries identifies reasons for the education system’s weak performance – and how to work with students, teachers, and principals to raise standards and student learning outcomes.

Education Department Associate Professor and developmental psychologist Tamer Amin is analyzing common language metaphors and diagrams that science teachers use – but which some students may not fully comprehend. He explains how his study of language usage, simulations, and the learning process identify weak spots in science learning today, while also aiming to bring about more effective science teaching.