Faculty GazetteAugust - December 2005 Volume 8.2

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LAU Student Theater Production titled “DualInsanity” which participated in the 8th LAUInternational University Theater Festival

Faculty GazetteThe

The Faculty Newsletter of the Lebanese American University

3 Conferences, Seminars, Workshops, Lectures & Exhibitions

8 School of Arts & Sciences8 - Arts & Communication11 - Education & Social Science13 - Humanities14 - Computer Science & Mathematics16 - Natural Science

18 School of Business19 School of Engineering & Architecture20 School of Pharmacy

21 Flashes from Centers and Institutes

The Faculty Gazette is the newsletter of the Faculty of the Lebanese American University. It is produced twice yearly by the Publications Office, Nicol Hall, Room 527, Beirut Campus.

Editor | Kristiaan Aercke, Humanities DivisionDesigner | Ghada Majed, Publications Office

Mailing addressP.O.Box 13-5053 F-26, Chouran Beirut: 1102-2801, Lebanon.Tel : +9611 786456/64 ext. 1277Fax: +9611 867098E-mail : kaercke@lau.edu.lb

LAU's website: http://www.lau.edu.lb

The Lebanese American University is an American institution chartered by the Board of Regents of theUniversity of the State of New York and operating in Lebanon.

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A première! The American University of Beirut (AUB)sent three of its employees for training to LAU insummer 2005, more specifically to the successful“Summer Seminar” offered for the ninth year in arow by the Institute for Banking & Finance(Byblos). The following topics were covered:“Business Planning and Strategic Management,”“Managerial Decision- Making,” “How to Maintainan Effective Working Atmosphere” and “BusinessValuation and Credit Analysis.” Vincent Petrini-Poli, aprofessor and international consultant based inChicago, led the first three seminars, while JulianRoche from Redcliffe Training Associates Limited(London) conducted the fourth. A total of 88 partici-pants from 15 different firms (mostly banks) attendedall four seminars, and in addition to these bankers,four companies from the industry (Indevco, VeoliaWater, Alfa and Apave) were represented. We hadone participant from the Housing Bank for Trade &Finance in Amman.

Maurice Maalouf magisterially directed the “8thInternational University Theater Festival” which tookplace July 22-29 in Irwin and Gulbenkian theaters aswell as outdoors in Beirut. It hosted 70 internationalparticipants from Holland, Poland, Jordan, Bahrain,Kuwait and Tunisia as well as 75 participants fromlocal universities including LAU (Beirut). In addition,35 LAU students were involved as technical & rela-tions crewmembers. Our own students participatedwith not less than seven productions.

The School of Business (Beirut) hosted Dr.

Carnegie Samuel Calian for a lecture in its brand-new facilities on October 17. Through its new“Research Seminar Series,” the School ofBusiness (Beirut) allows its faculty to present work-in-progress to peers and students. This original ini-tiative will certainly contribute toward creating apositive research atmosphere. Anwar Bou Moslehhad the grand honor of opening the Series onNovember 19 with a paper-in-progress: “DirectorCompensation and Board Effectiveness.” Rima TurkAriss presented her paper “Competitive Behavior inMENA Banking: A Cross-Country Analysis” onDecember 20.

The Institute of Family and EntrepreneurialBusiness (IFEB) organized a free program (inArabic) on “E-Learning for Entrepreneurs” in coopera-tion with J.P. Morgan (USA). The seminar took placeon Byblos Campus, November 16-18.

For several decades now, Indian-born Gayatri Spivakhas been a widely published and world-renownedscholar at the cross-roads of literary and cultural crit-icism, postcolonial studies, Marxism and feminism.She was the guest of the Humanities Division andthe M.A. Program in Comparative Literature(Beirut). On November 17, Dr. Spivak lectured in IrwinHall Auditorium (standing room only) on the subjectof “Globalization and the Humanities.”Distinguishing between “good” and “bad” globaliza-tion, Dr. Spivak writes that “even good globalizationrequires uniformity and must therefore destroy lin-guistic and cultural specificity. This damages human

Conferences, Seminars, Workshops, Lectures & Exhibitions

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1Participants in the2005 IBAF SummerSeminars

2Scene from theDutch production atthe 8th InternationalUniversity TheaterFestival

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November 17:Irwin Auditoriumfilling up forGayatri Spivak

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November 18:A view of theSpivak Seminar

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Professor Gayatri Spivak at theHumanities/Comparative Literature lecture

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Anwar BouMosleh presentingat theBusinessResearchSeminarSeries

1A Jordanian pro-duction at the8th InternationalUniversityTheater Festival

2-3The Tunisiantroupe in action

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life and makes globalization unsustainable in termsof people.” She then asks: “How can the humanitiesand an extended notion of comparative literature beuseful in persistently containing this trend?” OnNovember 18, Dr. Spivak met with eager students andfaculty in the Irwin Hall conference rooms for a 2-hour class session. All those present had read hermost recent book Death of a Discipline (2003) andwere prepared to discuss it with the author. Dr.Spivak is the Avalon Foundation Professor in theHumanities at Columbia University, New York, whereshe also serves as Director of the Center forComparative Literature and Society. Her distinguishedvisit to LAU was a landmark in the recent history ofthe Humanities Division and the M.A. Program inComparative Literature.

In cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung andthe Goethe Institut, the Institute for Women’sStudies in the Arab World (IWSAW) held a semi-nar on November 18 on “Democracy and Gender: TheRole of Women in Politics, the Media and Education.”Dima Dabbous-Sensenig, Acting Director ofIWSAW, introduced the prominent German speakers.Dr. Anke Martiny, former MP and Senator for Culturefrom Berlin, presented a paper on the role of womenin politics. Next, Mrs. Gisela Brackert, journalist andformer President of the Journalists’ Association,spoke about the role of women in the media. Finally,Dr. Hadumod Bussman, former responsible for

Women Affairs at the Ludwig Maximillians Universityin Munich, spoke about women in education.

Working toward capacity building in the sector ofwaste-water treatment management, the BiologyDepartment (Byblos) implemented during July andNovember a second series of advanced local andregional training courses in the framework of theEuropean Union-funded project “EfficientManagement of Waste-water, its Treatment andReuse.” The highly specialized courses prepared andsupervised by Sima Tokajian attracted some 46 par-ticipants from Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Turkey.Specialists from Lebanon, Europe and the MiddleEast lectured on waste-water treatment and reuse,and its environmental impact in Lebanon.

The Humanities Division (Beirut) in collaborationwith the Teacher Training Institute invited Dr.Agneta Svalberg to deliver a workshop on profession-al development, on November 13. The very relevanttopic of the day was “Academic Cultural Perspectiveson Textual Borrowing/Plagiarism.”

JAD at LAU. On November 24, the Graphic DesignProgram (Beirut), in collaboration with the GoetheInstitut, organized a lecture entitled “The History ofComics in the Arabic Language” by award-winningcomic-strip artist George Khoury (AKA JAD). Next,the Graphic Design Program organized a “Comic-

9Dima Dabbous-Sensenigat the Democracy andGender Seminar

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10The panel at theDemocracy and GenderSeminar

11VPAA Dr. Sfeir addressingparticipants in theWaste-water Treatmenttraining course

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1At the JAD lecture: (L-R)Mr. Rolf Stehle of theGoethe Institut,Yasmine Taan, JAD

2At the JAD lecture

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Byblos Architecture and Design students in frontof the work of Spanish architect Calatrava...

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…and before a characteristic Gaudi creation

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Graphic Designstudents at theKufi workshop inBeirut

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Strip Workshop” by George Khoury on the theme“The Animals’ Conference in Lebanon,” an adaptationof Erich Kaestner’s novel The Animals’ Conference. InKaestner’s original novel, the animals of the worldare tired of the never-ending wars of the humans;they convene a “World Conference” with the aim ofsecuring a better future for children and young peo-ple. The point of the workshop was to adapt thenovel to the current situation in Lebanon.

The Graphic Design Program (Beirut) offered twoworkshops by Nedim Kufi. “Sound before Image”engaged students in the motion design class,November 25-27. The students produced an animatedtypography using sound and image. The “Make aBook Workshop” was held for students of the GraphicDesign III class, December 2-4. In this experimentalworkshop, each participant produced a personal art-book on recycled, hand-made paper. Innovativeprocesses of book-binding were investigated, and theresult was a limited edition.

The Department of Architecture and Design(Byblos) organized the “International StudioExhibition 2005: Barcelona & Valencia” to display theprojects of the International Studio students who vis-ited Barcelona and Valencia in September under thesupervision of Tony Lahoud. The trip offered stu-dents the opportunity to explore the characteristics of

the Spanish typology and to identify the work of suchgreat architects as Gaudi, Calatrava and RaphaelMoneo. George E. Nasr, Dean of the School ofEngineering and Architecture, opened the exhibi-tion on November 24 at the Rima Amal HouraniExhibition Hall (Byblos) in the presence of high-rank-ing government dignitaries, a representative of theSpanish Embassy, students, faculty and many visi-tors. The exhibition was followed by a reception.

On December 21, the Computer Science andMathematics Division (Beirut) invited Hassan M.Khachfe to Sage Hall to speak in the context of its“Bio-informatics Seminar.” The afternoon’s subjectwas “Structural Characterization by HomologyModeling (SCHM): An in-silico alternative to the bio-physical structure determination.” A seminar on“Intelligent Agent Technology” was led by Dr. HadiSabeh.

In the context of its “Invited Lecture Series,” theComputer Science and Mathematics Division(Byblos) offered a seminar on “Biomedical Circuitsand Systems for Implantable Devices” by Dr.Mohamad Sawan on December 23. Dr. Sawadreceived his degrees from universities in Quebec(Laval, Sherbrooke, McGill), and he has been for morethan a decade a professor in Microelectronics at theEcole Polytechnique de Montréal.

6LAU faculty and digni-taries at the opening ofthe International StudioExhibition 2005, Byblos

7View of theInternational StudioExhibition 2005, Byblos

8Hadi Sabeh at the CSMSeminar

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Arts & Communication School of Arts & Sciences

The Dar Bellarj Cultural Institute in Marrakesh wascrowded on November 12 with around 50 participantsfrom Belgium, the U.K., Iran, France, Germany,Argentina, Switzerland, Morocco, Lebanon and the U.S.They had gathered to brainstorm the pedagogical direc-tion of the program to be launched at the ÉcoleSupérieure des Arts Visuels in Marrakesh. YasmineTaan presented her paper “Lisibilité et visibilité d'unemodernité arabe: Des Signes de modernité dans lacréation visuelle du monde arabe.” She presented thedevelopment of Arabic typography from its calligraphicroots, starting with Ibn Muqlah’s letter proportions, tolow-resolution Arabic typefaces designed for thescreen by Tarek Atrissi.

Probably few of us know that Yasmine Taan is anaccomplished and prolific book illustrator, with around20 books to her credit. At the French book fair “Lire enFrançais et en Musique”, that was held at BIEL inNovember, Ms Taan had signing sessions for her mostrecent productions: La Princesse au Collier de Perlesand Deux Plumes et un Voyage (both written by Mary-Noelle Japy Fahed). She had also a signing session atLibrairie Al Bourj, Dar Annahar for Princesse Angéliqueand Angélique et le Loup (both written by StéphanieSchneider). Samples of her work for these books wereselected for exhibition at the International BolognaBook Fair in March, 2006.

Achtung! Twenty-five graphic design students, accom-panied by Sylvia Gabrielian and Nathalie Fallaha,attended “Profile Intermedia 8” in Bremen, December9-11. “Profile Intermedia” is the international confer-ence on the crossover in design, art, architecture, film,video, photography, digital media, sonic art, revolution,visual effects, music, fashion, protest and performance.Speakers included worldwide branding specialistsWally Ollins, Mirko IIic, Mervyn Kurlansky and TanjaDiezmann. Hamish Muir and Simon Johnston, the origi-nal founders of 8vo spoke about their work and theirnew book 8vo. On the Outside. Our students attendedthe morning workshops; they keep very good impres-sions of their interaction with international design stu-dents and workshop leaders–especially when recallinghow ‘hard’ they pushed to promote Lebanese graphicdesign in general and LAU in particular.

Bassam Lahoud participated in a conference on “TheActual Situation of Art & Culture in Lebanon,” whichwas held in Erfurt, Germany in late June. He also hadthere a personal photo exhibit, “A Trip to Lebanon,” aswell as a student photo exhibit “Student Trip ThruPhotography.” Mr. Lahoud met with the dignitaries ofErfurt University and was invited to attend the annualdinner on campus.

Bassam Lahoud traveled to Italy in August to partici-

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1-2Yasmine Taan present-ing in Marrakesh

3Yasmine Taan (R) at herBIEL book signing inNovember

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4Bassam Lahoud (C)at the Erfurt Exhibitopening

5Bassam Lahoud (L) atthe end of year dinnerat Erfurt University

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Graphic Designstudents at theBremen workshop

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pate in the University of Camerino’s “14th InternationalSeminar of Architecture and Urban Culture” (in Italian).Mr. Lahoud is no foreigner to Camerino, since he hasalready participated several times in this SeminarioInternazionale. This year’s topic was broad: “Art andArchitecture.” Mr. Lahoud’s contribution focused on theconnections between the body and architecture throughphotography. It also merits mention that our colleaguewas reappointed for the 3rd straight year as Chair of theESCWA Arts Council!

Dima Dabbous-Sensenig presented a paper entitled“Building Diversity and Restructuring Cultural Exchangein the Arab World” at the “3rd Pan-American Congressof Communication” on the theme of “CommercialIntegration or Cultural Dialogue in the Context of theInformation Society.” The conference was organized bythe School of Communication Sciences of the Universityof Buenos Aires in July.

Dr. Dabbous-Sensenig began this academic year withthe annual conference of the Beirut Institute forMedia Arts (BIMA) which was on the topic of“Religion, Media and the Middle East” and which tookplace on the LAU Beirut Campus, October 2-5. Her paperwas on “The hijab controversy on Al-Jazeera.” Dr.Dabbous-Sensenig then traveled to New York to pre-sent her paper “Incorporating an Arab-MuslimPerspective in the Reassessment of the Implementationof the Beijing Platform for Action” at an expert consulta-tion organized by the UN Division for the Advancementof Women (DAW), October 31-November 3. The consul-tation theme was “Priorities in follow-up to the ten-yearreview and appraisal of implementation of the BeijingDeclaration and Platform for Action.” And November 26-28, Dr. Dabbous-Sensenig was in Sharjah at a confer-ence organized by the International Music and MediaCenter (IMZ-Austria). ARTE and BBC executives partici-pated in the conference which aimed to discuss and

promote a regulatory and economic framework for theproduction and dissemination by satellite of artistic andalternative audio-visual and music products in the Arabworld. She presented a paper entitled “ArtisticBroadcasting in a Hostile Environment? The Laws ofSupply and Demand in the Arab World.”

Dr. Dabbous-Sensenig was invited by the Departmentof Social and Behavioral Sciences at Notre DameUniversity (Louaize) to be the first guest lecturer in the“5th Millenial Lecture Series 2005-2006: Veils of Eve.”She read a paper titled "Al-Shari’a Wal Hayat: GenderDiscourse in Al-Jazeera’s Religious Talk Shows" inwhich she analyzed the spectrum of views on womenand Islam. She argued that, despite claims to the con-trary, the Al-Jazeera religious talk show through itsmain guest Sheikh Qaradawi privileges a position that isat times very close to a conservative approach towomen and Islam.

Mona Knio was academic supervisor of six studentproductions last Fall: “The Chairs” written by IssamMahfouz (in Arabic), “Medeaspiel” by Heiner Müller,“Act Without Words” by Samuel Beckett (p.11), “TheHuman Voice” by Jean Cocteau (in Arabic) (p.12), “MissJulie” by August Strindberg and “Play” by SamuelBeckett.

On December 21, Selina Korban Theater (Byblos) wit-nessed another success of Joseph Khalife’s LAUChoir (Byblos): the annual Christmas Concert.

And everybody watching Future TV at around 8:30 pmon Saturday December 24 must have seen LeilaDabaghi’s LAU Choir (Beirut) perform its annualmagic. A crew from Future had filmed the final perfor-mance of the Choir’s 2005 Christmas Concert in IrwinHall, and parts of it were broadcast in a special programfollowing the evening news (p.13).

1Dima Dabbous-Sensenig(top R) at the UN-DAW

2Dima Dabbous-Sensenig(2nd L) in Sharjah

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Education & SocialScience

Huda Ayyash-Abdo was invited to speak at the“National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCCInternational) and the Association of CounselorEducation for Supervision (ACES) Conference” inPittsburgh, October 19. The conference was part ofthe “International Fellows Program of ACES 2005.” Dr. Ayyash-Abdo presented on the “Status ofCounseling in Lebanon” (p.12).

In August, only a few days before Hurricane Katrinadevastated New Orleans, Ketty Sarouphim present-ed in that ill-starred city her paper “A Performance-based Assessment of Giftedness: Research onValidity” at the “16th Biennial Conference of theWorld Council of Gifted and Talented Children.”

In September, Dr. Sarouphim gave a workshop to the teachers of “Dr. Mohamad Khaled SocialFoundation” (Beirut) on the subject of “Caring forDisadvantaged Children.” In November, she read apaper entitled “Teaching Gifted Students: AChallenge or a Gift?” at a plenary session of the “9thScience and Math Conference” held at AUB (p.13). Dr. Sarouphim also published an article, “DISCOVERAcross the Continuum of Grades: Identifying GiftedMinority Students,” in the journal Gifted and Talented International 21 (2) 2005, 123-134.

Irma-Kaarina Ghosn published a review ofGoldstein & Selby (Eds.), Weaving Connections:Educating for Peace, Social and EnvironmentalJustice in Journal of Peace Education 2(2) 2005, 222-223.

LAU President Dr. Joseph Jabbra, delivered a lec-ture on December 16 in the Selina Korban Auditorium(Byblos), on “From a Diverse to a Uniform GlobalVillage: The Benefits and Drawbacks ofGlobalization.”

The Department of Political Science andInternational Affairs (Beirut) held an end-of-the-year reception for full-time and part-time faculty, staffand graduate students in Irwin Hall Faculty Lounge(December 9). Paul Tabar, Chair of the Department,delivered a witty speech with kind and thoughtfulwords for each and every person present. It was anice occasion to introduce and welcome our new col-league Jennifer Skulte-Oueiss.

In December, Fawwaz Traboulsi published Fayrouzwa-l-Rahabina- Masrah al-Gharib wa-l-Kanz wa-l -U`juba, a 243 pp. critical essay on the musical theaterof the Rahbanis and Fayrouz. He also translated textsby Edward Said: Humanism and Democratic Criticism(Beirut: Dar al-Adaab, 2005), and by AlessandroBarrico: Silk (Damascus: Dar al-Mada, 2005). In addi-tion, Dr. Traboulsi published the article “PublicSpheres and Urban Space: A Critical ComparativeApproach” in the journal New Political Science 27 (4)2005, 529-41. And he did editorial work for NewPolitical Science as well as for Al-Raida , theIWSAW magazine.

Fawwaz Traboulsi did not only write and publish alot last Fall, but he also spoke a lot in public, withtelevision appearances on ‘Kalam Mayzun’ (TaniusDu`aybis), ABN (October 8); a documentary film onMichel Chiha (director: George Ghanim), LBC(November 21); a documentary film on Euro-Med (ZiadAntar and Mahmoud Hujayj), AL-Arabiya (November);and the ‘Maza Ba`d’? talk show (Amr Nassif), Al-Manar (December 28).

In the previous issue of the Faculty Gazette 8.1, p. 10,we reported on the publication of Bin Laden in theSuburbs: Criminalizing the Arab Author, co-authoredby Paul Tabar (2005). The book has already becomea success and it has been favorably reviewed.

3-4“Act Without words”supervised by Mona Knio

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According to one reviewer, “Bin Laden in the Suburbsargues that the social imaging of the criminal in con-temporary Australia increasingly involves the evoca-tion of the ‘Arab-other’ as a primary folk devil of ourtimes: a figure which brings together Arabs, Muslimsand Australians of Middle Eastern ancestry and isgrounded in manifestations of crime and violence.”The racially motivated riots in Cronulla (Sydney) lastDecember prove the urgency and the relevance of thisstudy. The publisher wants an updated edition withadditional chapters on the Cronulla Riots.

Sami Baroudi gave a presentation on the timely sub-ject of "US-Lebanese Relations in the Twenty-FirstCentury: A View from Beirut." He spoke in the contextof the “America in the Middle East/The Middle East inAmerica Conference” organized by the Center forAmerican Studies and Research (CASAR) at AUB(December 18-21). This major international confer-ence featured papers by more than 60 scholars from15 countries. A modified and updated version of thepaper will be forthcoming in the journal The ArabWorld Geographer.

5A surprise reunion withthree GWU classmatesand a former professor

4Huda Ayyash-Abdo withGerald Corey, renownedauthor of textbooks oncounseling

1-2-3Scenes from the produc-tion “The Human Voice”supervised by Mona Knio

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Leila Harmoush analyzed part of the history of LAU atthe “Renaissance, Representation and IdentityConference” which was organized at Durham Universityin September. Her paper was entitled "A Turning Pointin Female Education in Lebanon: Beirut UniversityCollege.”

Victor Khachan traveled twice to Australia to readpapers at different conferences. With “Collective VocalBehavior at the Crossroads between Lebanese VillageIdentity and its ‘Imagined’ Counterpart” he participatedin the “30th Annual Congress of the Applied LinguisticsAssociation of Australia (ALAA)” at the University ofMelbourne in September. And in December, he present-ed a paper at Macquarie University, Sidney, in the “15thAustralian Language and Speech Conference (ALAS)”entitled “Mapping Collective Auditory Perception inConnected Speech.”

Kristiaan Aercke published in Turin an annotated, crit-ical translation of a late-medieval pilgrim’s diary. The

Story of Sir Konrad Grünemberg’s Pilgrimage to the HolyLand in 1486 gives an account of the hardships and theblessings that befell this German knight and his com-rades during their 31 week voyage. Besides being anaccount of the gruesome travel conditions and the routealong the southeastern Mediterranean coastline, mostof the text describes the pilgrims’ nine-week stay inJerusalem and their visits to the surrounding HolyPlaces. The introduction places the narrative in the con-texts of past and present orientalisms, and it is relevantin the post 9/11 context.

In December, Ken Seigneurie traveled to Washington,DC to participate in the annual meeting of the ModernLanguage Association, where he presented a paperentitled “The Lebanese War Novel and HumanistRenewal.” With Hala Daouk, a Comparative Literaturegraduate student, Dr. Seigneurie co-presented“Fajanaakun! Moo?” (We Surprised You! Didn’t We?).This presentation featured photos, video and songs ofthe Spring 2005 Independence movement.

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6Ketty Sarouphim at“Teaching GiftedStudents” at AUB

7Junior and senior mem-bers of the BeirutChristmas Choir giving itall they can – to greatapplause

8Kristiaan Aercke’stranslation ofGrünemberg’s diary

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Joseph T. Khalife presented a paper entitled “ASimple Computer Model based on Visualization,Analogy and Collaboration” at the “IASTEDInternational Conference on Education and Technology(ICET 2005)” which was held in July in Calgary. Thepaper was published in the Proceedings. In August,Mr. Khalife was in Nicosia, where he presented apaper (first co-author) entitled “Understanding NoviceProgrammers’ Difficulties as a Requirement toSpecifying Effective Learning Environments” at the“11th Biennial Conference of the EuropeanAssociation for Research on Learning and Instruction.”

Haidar Harmanani attended the Microsoft “HigherEducation Summit” in London. Between November 27and 30, specialists from across Europe, the MiddleEast and Africa gathered in London to identify chal-lenges facing higher education and to develop strate-gies to best meet these challenges.

Ramzi Haraty published the chapter “Security Issuesin Distributed Transaction Processing Systems” in theEncyclopedia of Information Science and Technology(Idea Group Publishing, 2005). Dr. Haraty further pub-lished two articles: “RSA-Based CryptographicAlgorithms” in the International Journal of Infonomics(November 2005), and “T-Stem - A Superior Stemmer

and Temporal Extractor for Arabic Texts” in theJournal of Digital Information Management 3 (3)September 2005.

In November, Ramzi Haraty participated in the ISCA“18th International Conference on ComputerApplications in Industry and Engineering (CAINE-2005)” in Hawaii, with two papers: “LebaneseColloquial Arabic Speech Recognition,” and “ModifiedRSA in the Domains of Gaussian Integers andPolynomials over Finite Fields.” Both papers appearedin the Proceedings.

May Hamdan's paper "Nonlinear Learning of LinearAlgebra: Active Learning through Journal Writing"was published in the International Journal ofMathematical Education in Science and Technology 36(16) 2005, 607-15.

May Abboud and Samer Habre were co-authors ofthe paper “Students’ Conceptual Understanding of aFunction and its Derivative in an ExperimentalCalculus Course,” which was published in the Journalof Mathematical Behavior 25 (1) 2006.

Samer Habre spent a sabbatical semester atCalifornia Polytechnic State University doing research

Computer Science & Mathematics

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1Haidar Harmanani (R) atwork with UmbertoPaolucci, MicrosoftSenior Chairman andVP for Corporate andGovernment Strategy

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on classification of iterative systems.

Nashat Mansour, with R. Siblini and A. Tarhini, pub-lished “WSDL Mutation for Testing Web Services” inthe International Journal of Computers and TheirApplications 12 (4) 2005, 210-16. Dr. Mansour alsopublished, with M. Awad and K. El-Fakih, the article“Incremental Genetic Algorithm” in the InternationalArab Journal of Information Technology 3 (1) 2005, 42-47. In November, Dr. Mansour gave a presentation on“Human Capacity Development for Information andCommunication Technology” at the “Launching theNational E-strategy for Lebanon Workshop,” whichwas organized by UNDP and the Ministry forAdministrative Reform.

Nashat Mansour joined the World Scientific andEngineering Academy and the Society Working Groupon Computers. He also served on the scientific com-mittees of the “International Conference on MachineIntelligence” in Tunisia (November) and the “IEEEInternational Conference on Signal-Image Technologyand Internet-Based Systems (SITIS-05)” in Yaoundé,Cameroon (November 27-December 1).

Faisal Abu-Khzam participated in the “InternationalComputing and Combinatorics Conference” which

was held in Kunming (China) in August, with the paper“A New Approach and Faster Exact Methods for theMaximum Common Sub-graph Problem” (in theProceedings, 717-727). His co-authors were M.A.Langston, N.F. Samatova, W. Henry Suters, C.T.Symons and Y. Zhang. The paper was presented byM.A. Langston. In November, Dr. Abu-Khzam was co-author of the paper “Genome-Scale ComputationalApproaches to Memory-Intensive Applications inSystems Biology” presented at the “Super-Computing2005 Conference” in Seattle (in the Proceedings, 12).Co-authors were N.E. Baldwin, E.J. Chesler, M.A.Langston, N.F. Samatova and Y. Zhang; the latter pre-sented the paper. Dr. Abu-Khzam was also awardeda $48,000 grant by Oak Ridge National Laboratory(ORNL) in Tennessee to conduct research on “Graph-Theoretical Methods for the Analysis of BiologicalData.”

Chadi Nour joined the LAU Byblos campus inOctober as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. Dr.Nour received a B.S. in Mathematics from theLebanese University and a Ph.D. in Mathematics fromthe Université de Lyon. In 2004, he was an invitedResearch Professor at Concordia University and aCRM postdoctoral fellow at the Université deMontréal.

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2Ramzi Haraty (R) inHawaii

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Ahmad Houri recently published several articles:“Residential Energy Consumption Patterns: The Caseof Lebanon” (with Samira Korfali) in InternationalJournal of Energy Research 29 (2005), 755-766;“Addictive Behaviors Amongst University Students:Contributing Factors, Student’s Perception andAddiction Rates” (with Mirvat Hammoud) in Journalof Social Sciences 1 (2) 2005, 105-113; “RenewableEnergy Resources in Lebanon: Practical Applications”in ISESCO Science and Technology Vision 1 (2005),65-68, and “Wind Energy: Will It Run The World?” inEnvironment and Development 10 (86) 2005, 52-54.Dr. Houri also participated in the final workshop on“National Forest and Tree Resources Assessment inLebanon” (FAO/TCP/LEB/2903), which took placeSeptember 13-14 in the Crown Plaza Hotel in Beirut.

Dr. Houri participated in several international confer-ences. As an invited speaker, he presented the paper“Solar Thermal Applications for Water Heating inLebanon” at the “4th International Conference onFuel Conservation in Buildings” and the “InternationalSymposium on South/South Networking andCooperation in Renewable Energy” in Tehran, March

10-15. In September, his paper (with co-authorsSaadieh el-Jeblawi, Mirvat Hammoud and HusseinAbbas) “Effect of Current Culture of Water Use onCoastal River Water Quality in Lebanon” was present-ed by Hussein Abbas, a senior student in biology, atthe “International Conference on Water Culture andWater Environment Protection” held in Kunming City(China), September 6 - 8 (Proceedings, 78-82). InNovember, Dr. Houri traveled to Kuwait to present“Evaluation of Residential Energy Consumption: AFirst Step to Energy Conservation Planning” at the“3rd International Conference on Energy Researchand Development (ICERD-3)” (Proceedings I: 93-102).Also in November, he presented two papers at the“12th World Water Congress of the InternationalWater Resources Association” in New Delhi: “WaterUse in Water Poor Countries: Energy, Agriculture orDomestic. The Case of Lebanon” (Proceedings II: 107-112) and “Role of Rainwater Catchment and Waste-water Management in Offsetting Water Needs: aCase Study” (with Saadieh El Jeblawi; Proceedings V:9-13).

Samira Korfali, with her loyal co-author B.E. Davies,

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1Ahmad Houri (2nd L)with conference digni-taries in Tehran

2Ahmad Houri (3rd L)with the KuweitConference organizers

3Ahmad (R) (relaxed) withthe Chair of the IWRAConference in New Delhi

VOL. 8.2 17

published the article “Seasonal variation of tracemetal chemical forms in bed sediments of a karsticriver in Lebanon: implications for self-purification” inthe journal Environmental Geochemistry and Health 27(2005), 385-95. Moreover, Dr. Korfali was againselected as international reviewer for a manuscript bythe International Journal of EnvironmentalManagement.

Ahmad Kabbani published the paper “Synthesis ofSome Metal Complexes of N-[(benzoylamino)-thiox-omethyl]-aminoacid (HL)” in the Journal of theUniversity of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy 40(4) 2005, 339-344. His research “The X-ray of Cu (ade-nine)(acetyl acetone)2.ethanol” was deposited in theCambridge Crystallographic Data Center, CCDC281077. Furthermore, Dr. Kabbani’s paper“Schroedinger Fluid and the Quadruple Moments ofAxially Deformed Nuclei in the p-Shell” was acceptedfor publication in the International Journal of AppliedMathematics.

The Biology Department (Byblos) received finalapproval of an ASHA grant worth $540,000 to estab-

lish a Genomics/Proteomics Center for teaching,research and community service–the first such facilityin Lebanon.

The Plant Physiology Group of the Natural ScienceDepartment (Byblos) successfully implemented theuse of plant tissue culture for the mass production ofAfrican Violets by using the plant’s leaf as a startingmaterial. Plant tissue culture is a biotechnologicalprocess that has developed into a flourishing businessin several countries, including Japan and the U.S. Thistechnology helps provide the market with severalplant species through procuring a uniform plant tissue.

Sima Tokajian and Fuad Hashwa recently pub-lished in the Canadian Journal of Microbiology 51 (4)2005, 325-336 their article “Phylogenetic assessmentof heterotrophic bacteria from a water distributionsystem using 16S rDNA sequencing.” In cooperationwith Dr. Pierre Zalloua (AUB) and Dr. Ian Hancock(University of Newcastle upon Tyne), they achieved forthe first time the successful phylogenetic analysis ofheterotrophic bacteria from drinking water samples inLebanon using the 16S rDNA sequencing technology.

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4-5Ahmad in India speak-ing on water resourcesand their best use

6LAU Labs are growingthe African Violets thatthe whole world loves

5

THE FACULTY GAZETTE18

School of Business

Silva Karkoulian presented her paper “How toEnhance Professional Development” at the“International Conference on Business, Economics,Management and Marketing” that was held in June inAthens. Whereas this news should have appeared in theprevious issue of the Gazette, Dr. Karkoulian receivedonly in November the good news that her paper will bepublished. Dr. Karkoulian also learned that her paper“Investigating the Importance of Mentoring in ThreeLebanese Higher Education Institutions” has beenaccepted for publication in the next issue of the ArabJournal of Administrative Sciences.

Rock-Antoine Mehanna, a member of the Faculty ofManagement, was an invited guest-speaker at the“International Conference on Doing Business in IslamicAsia,” which was held in Kuala Lumpur in June. Theconference was organized by the Universiti Kebangsaan(National University of Malaysia) and the University ofHawaii-Manoa, in conjunction with the meetings of theOrganization of Islamic Countries and of the IslamicDevelopment Bank. Dr. Mehanna presented a paperentitled “Regional Business Patterns in IslamicCountries.”

Rock-Antoine Mehanna also published several arti-cles in the period covered by this issue of the Gazette:“A Gulf Monetary Union: How Close Are We Really?” inthe Journal of Transnational Management Development9 (4) 73-91, and “Are Open-Developing Economies LessCorrupt and/or Politically Freer?” in Thoughts onEconomics 15 (1-2) 7-20. Also, Dr. Mehanna published

his paper “Examining Wagner’s Law: A Co-integrationAnalysis,” in the refereed proceedings Global Business& Economics Anthology (December 2005, 33-41). Inaddition, Dr. Mehanna received several significant hon-ors. His paper “Open First, Then Invest” received the“Best Paper Award” at the “European Applied BusinessResearch Conference” in Santorini, Greece. No doubtbecause of all of the previous, he was invited to serveon the editorial boards of the Global Journal of Finance& Economics and of The International Business andEntrepreneurship Development Journal.Congratulations, Dr. Mehanna.

In August, Rima Turk Ariss was appointed to the“National Council for the Protection of Consumers”, arecently formed body within the Ministry of Economyand Trade according to the Consumer Protection lawthat was promulgated in May 2005. The Council com-prises, among others, nine Directors-General of differentministries, and representatives from the economic andsocial community. Dr. Turk Ariss also presented apaper entitled “Trade-Off between Stability andEfficiency in Banking–A Myth” at the “18th AustralasianFinance and Banking Conference” which was held at theShangri-La Hotel in Sydney (December 14-16). The con-ference was organized by the School of Banking &Finance at the University of New South Wales and host-ed five keynote speakers: Mark Flannery (University ofFlorida), Martin Gruber (Stern Business School, NewYork University), Anne O. Krueger (InternationalMonetary Fund), Andrei Shleifer (Harvard University) andSuresh M. Sundaresan (Columbia University).

School of Engineering & Architecture

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1Dr. Silva Karkoulian (C)with two professorsfrom the conference inAthens

2Dr. Rock-AntoineMehanna in front ofMalaysia’s PetronasTowers

VOL. 8.2 19

School of Engineering & Architecture

Elie Haddad has developed a fascinating web-pro-ject on Beirut for the Architecture League of NewYork’s Worldview Series. This case study of Beirut ispart of the Worldview Series titled “Perspectives onArchitecture and Urbanism from Around the Globe,”a web-based project that looks at various cities. Theinaugural report on Caracas in 2002 was followedby reports on Dhaka, Oslo, Tijuana and now: Beirut!Dr. Haddad’s report was commissioned by theArchitecture League. Among its features of interestare essays, an illustrated Timeline on the city, and areview of young contemporary architects in Beirut.Please view it athttp://www.worldviewcities.org/beirut/main.html.

Elie Haddad's article “In Nietzsche's Shadow:Henry van de Velde and the New Style inArchitecture” appeared in Architecture TheoryReview 10 (2) 89-99, a publication of the Universityof Sidney.

Samer Saab continues to serve as associate editorof IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technologywhile also being a member of the IEEE ControlSystems Society Editorial Board. In the Novemberissue of IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 50(11) 2005, 1761-74, Dr. Saab published “Selectionof the Learning Gain Matrix of an Iterative LearningControl Algorithm in Presence of MeasurementNoise.” In the December issue of the same journal(50 [12] 2005, 2039-43), he published the article“Optimal Selection of the Forgetting Matrix into an

Iterative Learning Control Algorithm.”

Dr. Saab participated in the “44th IEEE Conferenceon Decision and Control–European ControlConference ECC 2005” which was held in Seville,December 12-15. His paper, “On Higher-OrderIterative Learning Control Algorithm in Presence ofMeasurement Noise” was published in theProceedings.

Camille Issa, with former LAU students RitaAwwad and Anthony Sfeir, co-authored the paper“Numerical Modeling of Plain Concrete BeamsStrengthened with Externally Bonded CFRP” at the“2005 ASCE International Conference on Computingin Civil Engineering” which was held in Cancún (July11-15; in the Proceedings). Dr. Issa is also theauthor of “An Experimental Overview of CFRPStructural Strengthening Techniques” which wasdelivered at the “International Conference onAdvanced Materials for Construction of Bridges,Buildings and Other Structures – IV” which tookplace in Maui, Hawaii (August 14-19; in theProceedings).

Pierrette Zouein, with Tannous Franjieh, present-ed a paper entitled “Design Constructability andSpace Management” at the “10th InternationalConference on Civil, Structural and EnvironmentalEngineering Computing (CC2005)” which took placein Rome in September (Paper #82, Civil-CompPress., in the Proceedings).

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3-4-5What web-usersthroughout the worldsee when they openElie Haddad’s web-project on Beirut

THE FACULTY GAZETTE20

School of Pharmacy

1Shereen Nabhani andMarwan Taha with LAUpharmacy students inLas Vegas

Soumana Nasser‘s work “The Lebanon-WMH Study:Highlights on Mental Health Disorders in Lebanon”was presented as an abstract in the “World PsychiatricAssociation Conference” that took place in Cairo inSeptember.

Marwan Taha was second co-author of the paper“Safety and Effectiveness of 100 mg/kg/dayDeferiprone in Patients with Thalassemia Major: ATwo-year Study” published in Acta Haematol. 114 (3)2005, 146-9. He was fifth co-author of the paper“Efficacy and Tolerability of Peginterferon alpha-2awith or without Ribavirin in Thalassaemia MajorPatients with Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection” inBritish Journal of Haematol. 130 (4) 2005, 644-6.

In November, the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists orga-nized a workshop for hospital pharmacists in theHabtoor Hotel-Sin El-Fil on the occasion of OncologyDay. Oussayma Moukhachen lectured on“Supportive Care: An Infectious Disease Perspective,”while Shereen Nabhani trained attending pharma-cists on “Pain Management.”

This workshop preceded the “13th Annual Congress ofthe Order of Lebanese Pharmacists” which was held atthe same location on the theme of “Pharmacy: A CoreProfession within the Health Care System.” OussaymaMoukhachen presented his paper “New Drugs on the

Lebanese Market.” Shereen Nabhani discussed herstudy of the perception of pharmacists by Lebanesepatients. She also gave a lecture on the “Role of thePharmacist in the Care of the Oncology Patient.”

Also in November, Oussayma Moukhachen present-ed his paper “Evidence for 5 top-selling medications”at the “Bridging Body and Mind Conference” organizedby the Lebanese Society of Family Medicine in AUB’sWest Hall.

Sara Dadayan was hosted by Kevin Ford in a talk onsmoking cessation which was aired on Radio One inDecember.

The School of Pharmacy was heavily represented inthe annual ASHP midyear meeting that took place inLas Vegas (December). Marwan Taha and ShereenNabhani accompanied more than ten students to theconference. The students presented posters of theirvarious research projects and they also interviewed forjobs and residencies. Wissam Kabbara and Elias HajjChahine represented LAU in the annual Clinical SkillsCompetition where they competed against 82 U.S.schools of pharmacy. They were coached by ShereenNabhani who also presented a poster on NAPHASS(No Apathy-Health Awareness Student Society)describing the various activities that took place onByblos campus during Pharmacy Week in October.

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VOL. 8.2 21

Flashes from Centers and Institutes

Dima Dabbous-Sensenig, BUC alumna and ActingDirector of the Institute for Women's Studies in theArab World (IWSAW), read a paper entitled “TheRole of Higher Education in the Empowerment ofWomen in Politics in the Arab World” at a forumorganised by the Dubai LAU Alumni chapter on “TheRole of Higher Education in the Empowerment andAchievements of Arab Women.” President Dr. J.Jabbra and VPAA Dr. A. Sfeir attended the event.Several BCW and BUC (now LAU) alumnae from differ-ent nationalities spoke on the role of higher educationin shaping their successful careers after graduation.The forum took place on December 3 and on December22.

Irma-Kaarina Ghosn, Director of the Institute forPeace and Justice Education, was one of 30 inter-national educators, historians and researchers invitedand sponsored by the Carnegie Council on Ethics andInternational Affairs and USIP to participate in theinternational, interdisciplinary conference “RevisingHistory Education after Conflict.” The conference washeld in Virginia, November 18-20.

In December, Irma-Kaarina Ghosn was invited toIstanbul by Women’s Initiative for Peace to consult onestablishing a university-based Peace EducationCenter in Turkey, modeled after the centers at TeachersCollege, LAU and three other universities around the

world. Dr. Ghosn shared her experiences with peaceeducation and the work of the Institute for Peaceand Justice Education. She also presented theIPJE’s latest project, the workshop manual Towards aCulture of Peace through Teacher Education. The 128page-manual was developed by Dr. Ghosn with agrant from the USIP (see Faculty Gazette 8.1 p. 24) andis subtitled “Teacher Education for Peace in MiddleEastern Countries.” It presents a wealth of classroomactivities to promote peace education as well asnumerous references and web resources. Severalschools in Lebanon are already using the manual, asdo some training projects in Iraq. Requests for copieshave come from the U.S., Italy, Nigeria and other coun-tries.

Fourteen reporters and editors from Lebanese mediadiscussed sources, corruption and journalists’ respon-sibilities during a week-long workshop in investigativejournalism at LAU funded by AMIDEAST and theUnited States Agency for International Development(USAID). The event was tailored to the training needsof selected print and broadcast journalists. It wasorganized by the Institute for ProfessionalJournalists (IPJ) at the Beirut campus, August 1-5.The sessions included investigative journalists’responsibilities, legal and ethical parameters, storyideas, locating sources, research techniques, using theInternet, and ways to improve writing style and struc-

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2Dima Dabbous-Sensenig(C) with President Dr.Jabbra (L) and VPAA Dr.Sfeir (R) and alumni inDubai

3The latest, and alreadypopular, publication ofthe Institute for Peaceand Justice Education

THE FACULTY GAZETTE22

ture. Journalists from Lebanon’s Future Television,Future Daily, Sada Al Balad Daily, Al-Liwa’ Daily, Al-Hayat-LBC Satellite Channel, Al-Shira’a Magazine andAl Itkissad wal ’Aamaal Magazine were among thosewho took part.http://ipj.lau.edu.lb/events/20050801/workshop.php.

Journalists’ safety in war zones, political considerationsand common experiences between Iraqi and Lebanesemedia permeated a workshop in media skills organizedby the Institute for Professional Journalists (IPJ)for 15 Iraqi print, broadcast and online reporters/editorsat the Beirut campus. The workshop featured MonaZiade, from the Lebanon country office of the WorldBank and a veteran editor/correspondent who dis-cussed the difference between news and opinion;Lebanese daily As-Safir editor Zuheir Hawari whotalked about the art of interviewing; pan-Arab dailyAsharq Al-Awsat correspondent/editor Sana El Jackwho tackled feature story writing; IPJ director MagdaAbu-Fadil who underlined the importance of media

ethics; LBCI TV’s anchor and talk show host and LAUalumna Shada Omar and producer Marwan Matni whoelaborated on broadcast news; and Lebanese Universityprofessor Mahmoud Tarabay who touched on cultivat-ing sources, online journalism and ways to improveone’s writing style. The event took place September26–October 5 and was funded by the Berlin-basedHeinrich Böll Foundation. It drew 15 journalists frommedia such as Nawa Radio, Kurdish satellite TV, AlDiyar TV, Azzaman newspaper, Voices of Iraq Newsagency, Yanabeeh magazine, Al Jeel magazine,Iraqioun news agency, As-Sabah newspaper and theBaghdad correspondent of the Washington Post.http://ipj.lau.edu.lb/events/2005/09_iraqij/beirut.php.

Institute for Professional Journalists DirectorMagda Abu-Fadil spoke of "Online Media Ethics: ANeeded Dynamic" at the conference "Online Journalismin the Arab World: Realities and Challenges" at theUniversity of Sharjah's (UAE) College ofCommunication, November 22-24. She examined the

1Nicole Abu Haydar(AMIDEAST), Lina Freij(USAID), Dr. SamiraAghacy (Dean, Arts &Sciences-Beirut) & IPJDirector Magda Abu-Fadil with investigativejournalism workshopparticipants

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VOL. 8.2 23

proliferation of sites, blogs and outlets for citizen jour-nalism and asked how countries could legislate for theInternet when one man's proverbial meat is anotherman's poison. She showed how mainstream media haveabused their powers by distorting news and picturesand demonstrated how different uses of captions onlinefor the same picture could lead to disinformation thatexperts considered unethical. Mrs. Abu-Fadil conclud-ed with a set of questions and recommendations tomake journalists, ethicists and users of online mediastop and think before embarking on their cyber quest forknowledge and communication.

The Institute for Professional Journalists helpedpromote LAU in the Middle East and the world at twoconferences in Dubai on women's empowerment andinternational media, respectively. Dubai and NorthernEmirates-based LAU alumnae organized a daylong forum(December 3) on the “Role of Higher Education in theEmpowerment and Achievements of Arab Women” thatunderlined LAU's pioneering history and role in the

region. IPJ Director Magda Abu-Fadil's presentationon “Media & Women in the Middle East & North Africa”touched on obstacles and constraints facing women inthe MENA region, the impact of regional media, ethics,standards and training, new media, solutions and rec-ommendations. Elsewhere in Dubai, Abu-Fadil attend-ed the “Arab and World Media Conference 2005:Getting it Right” (December 5-6) that drew 1,000 partici-pants representing media experts, journalists, acade-mics, advertising and high-tech organizations fromaround the world to discuss ways of bridging the East-West cultural divide (http://arabandworldmedia.org)

International experts including IPJ Director MagdaAbu-Fadil met in Paris to design model journalism cur-ricula. Their talks focused on the context of journalismeducation, curricula, educators and students, and led toplans for the first world journalism education congressscheduled for 2007 in Singapore. This “ExpertsConsultative Meeting on Journalism Education” washeld at UNESCO Headquarters, December 14-16.

3Iraqi journalists visitLBCI-TV station duringIPJ workshop

2Dima Dabbous-Sensenig(L) and Magda Abu-Fadil(C) at Dubai conferenceon the "Role of HigherEducation in theEmpowerment andAchievements of ArabWomen."

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THE FACULTY GAZETTE24

2Science and mass cul-ture meet at LAU –waiting for futurebeauty to grow

1IPJ director (L) at"Experts ConsultativeMeeting onJournalism Education"organized by UNESCOin Paris

LEBANESE AMERICANU N I V E R S I T Y

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