History Makers

Shukri Faiz Khuri

1943-2008

Influential Surgeon, Mentor

Category: Pioneers in Health
Service to AUB: Trustee 1998-2002, President, AUB Alumni Association of North America 1997-2000 and volunteer, WAAAUB Strategy Task Force, 2005
Education: AUB BS General 1964, MD 1968

Dr. Khuri was born in Jerusalem and moved to Beirut as a child, earning a B.Sc with distinction from AUB in 1964, an M.D. with distinction from AUB in 1968 and a Honorary M.S. from Harvard Medical School in 1987. He trained in cardiovascular research and surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Mayo Clinic, eventually rising to become Chief of Surgery at the West Roxbury Veterans Administration Medical Center, Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Vice Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. During his tenure at the VA, he created the first automated data management system in a surgical intensive care unit in the Northeast U.S. While his surgical achievements gave him national and international prominence, his lasting contribution to public health was his role as co-founder of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP). The NSQIP is now recognized by the entire surgical community as the standard for the comparative assessment of quality of surgical care and for continuous improvements in surgery. The NSQIP was adopted by the American College of Surgeons and continues to make a significant impact today in surgeries performed nationwide in both the public and private sector. In addition to his scientific contributions, Dr. Khuri was a mentor to many AUB students and alumni, assisting them with professional placements and providing career counseling. He was the President of the New England chapter of the AUB Alumni Association and served on the Board of Directors of the National chapter of the AUB Alumni Association. Dr. Khuri was the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Ernest Amory Codman Award, the Frank Brown Berry Prize and AUB's own Stephen Penrose Award. Dr. Khuri dedicated his life to providing his patients with the highest quality compassionate care, and his research created a legacy that endures today.

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Zabih Ghorban

1903-2006

Founder and former Chancellor of Shiraz University in Iran

Category: University Founders and Leaders
Year At AUB: 1931
Service to AUB: Pioneers in Health
Education: AUB, MD 1931

Zabih Ghorban was born in Abadeh in 1903 and settled in Shiraz, Iran after receiving his MD from AUB and doing a year of postgraduate work in France. Recognizing an immediate need for trained health professionals, Dr. Ghorban created the School of Assistant Nurses in 1937, a four-year medical college, Amouzeshgahe' Ali Behdari, and a two-year college, Amouzeshgahe' Behyari, in 1945. English was adopted as the medium of instruction and this enabled the students to use a large body of literature and made it possible to hire well-known international academicians. To treat patients and train doctors, he created the Saadi Hospital in 1945 with the help of the government and people of Shiraz. Under his leadership, Shiraz Medical School was established in 1949 and he was appointed as the dean while he was also serving as the Director-General of the Fars Province Health Department. Shiraz University was officially inaugurated in 1955 with Dr. Ghorban as its chancellor and the elected dean of the medical school. During his long and illustrious career, he graduated over 1000 doctors. Ghorban always stayed close to AUB and his sons also graduated from the university.

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Wadad Kadi

Islamic Scholar

Category: Great Scholars and Teachers
Year At AUB: 1965
Education: AUB, BA 1965; AUB, MA 1969; AUB, PhD 1973

Wadad Kadi is a renowned Islamic scholar. She has published widely on Islamic thought and classical Arabic prose, mainly in the first four centuries of Islam. She is currently the Avalon Foundation Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago’s Department of Near Easter Languages and Civilizations. She earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees at AUB in Arabic literature and Islamic studies, completing one year of doctoral study at the University of Tübingen in Germany. After graduation, she taught at AUB, Harvard, Columbia, and Yale, before settling at the University of Chicago. She has served on number administrative committees over the course of her career. Currently, she is associate editor of the Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, and co-editor for the series Islamic History and Civilization by Brill Publishers.

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Sheikha Hessa Bint Saad Abdullah SalemAlSabah

Businesswoman

Category: Leaders in Business
Education: BA 1974, Public Administration

Sheikha Hessa Bint Saad Abdullah Salem Al Sabah is a successful businesswoman and has been president of the Council of Arab Businesswomen since its founding in 1999. She previously worked at the International Marine Petroleum Company, and within the Ministry of Defense’s Department of Medical Services. A champion of women in the workplace, she has served on several committees, including the Kuwait Volunteers Women Society, the Kuwait Businesswomen Committee, Arab African Woman Council, and the Women’s Affairs Committee. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including being included in Arabian Business list of "100 Most Powerful Women" in 2011, 2012, and 2013.

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Mira Kaddoura

Artist, Entrepreneur

Category: Virtuoso Artists and Writers
Education: BE 2000, graphic design

(BE 2000, GD) Mira Kaddoura is a interactive artist and executive creative director. In 2013, she founded Red & Co. an independent creative agency, working in advertising, film, technology, and design, that solves problems that matter. Previously, she worked at Wieden+Kennedy where she created memorable campaigns for clients such as Nike, Girl Effect, Coca-Cola, and Target. Most recently, Red & Co. created MadewithCode.com, one of Google's most successful and ambitious initiatives, which seeks to fight the dearth of women in tech. She strives to create work that starts meaningful conversations around companies and causes she believes in. Her work has won international honors including several Gold Lions at Cannes, TED Ads Worth Spreading, D&AD Yellow and White Pencils, British Television Awards, CLIOs, Gold Effies, Webbys among many others. She graduated with top honors from Virginia Commonwealth University with an MS in Mass Communication and was awarded an AUB Distinguished Alumni Award in 2010.

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Leila Sharaf

Pioneering Parliamentarian

Category: Activists and Public Servants
Service to AUB: 1981-2010 as trustee; 2010-present as trustee emerita
Education: AUB, BA Teaching of Arabic 1959; AUB, MA Teaching of Arabic 1965

Leila Najjar Sharaf, a Jordanian of Lebanese origin, became the first woman elected to the Jordanian Senate in 1989 and has also served as Jordan's Minister of Information. She became an AUB trustee in 1981 and has been trustee emeritus since 2010. Sharaf is is the chair of the Board of Trustees of Philadelphia University in Jordan and of the Palestine International Institute. She serves on several boards, including the International Academy Schools (Amman); the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (formerly as president), the King Hussein Foundation and the Noor Al-Hussein Foundation, the Arab Institute for Human Rights (Tunisia), the Center for Arab Unity Studies (Beirut), and the United Nations University (Costa Rica). She is a member of the World Affairs Council (Amman) and a former vice president of the Higher National Committee of the Jerash Festival for Culture and Arts.

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Ihsan Abbas

Arabic Language and Literature Scholar

Category: Great Scholars and Teachers
Year At AUB: 1961
Service to AUB: 1961-2003 as professor; 1989 as professor emeritus
Education: Cairo University, BA, MA, PhD

Born in humble circumstances in Ayn Ghazal, Palestine, Ihsan Abbas grew to become one of the twentieth century’s most distinguished and internationally recognized scholars of Arabic language and literature. He won countless honors in his lifetime, including the King Faysal International Award for Literature, the Jerusalem Medal, the Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation’s award for service to the written heritage of Islam, and the Lebanese Order of the Cedars, Knight rank. He earned a certificate at the Arab College of Jerusalem, a BA, an MA and a PhD at Cairo University, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from University of Chicago. One of AUB’s most beloved professors, he was a prolific writer who produced scores of books and articles; most notably Abdul-Wahhab al-Bayyati and Modern Iraqi Poetry (1965), History of Andalusian Literature, 2 vols. (3rd edition, 1970), A History of Arabic Literary Criticism (1971), and numerous translations of Western literature, including Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Three festschrifts were published in honor of his sixtieth, seventieth and eightieth birthdays: “Studia Islamica”, “Shrine of Knowledge—Fi Mihrab El-Ma’rifah”, and “Ihsan Abbas: Literary Critic, Historian, and Editor of Classical Manuscripts,” respectively.

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Hanna Batatu

Scholar, Middle East Authority

Category: Great Scholars and Teachers
Service to AUB: 1962-1982 as professor
Education: Harvard University, PhD 1960

Hanna Batatu was a Palestinian American, Marxist historian specializing in the history of Iraq and the modern Arab east. His work on Iraq is widely considered the pre-eminent study of modern Iraqi history. Born in Jerusalem in 1926, Hanna Batatu immigrated to the United States in 1948, the year of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. From 1951 to 1953, he studied at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He earned his doctorate in political science at Harvard University in 1960, with a dissertation entitled “The Shaykh and the Peasant in Iraq, 1917-1958.” From 1962 to 1982 he taught at AUB, then from 1982 until his retirement in 1994 at Georgetown University in the United States. He was considered by his academic peers to be among the greatest political scientist to study the Middle East.

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Emily Nasrallah

Journalist and Author

Category: Virtuoso Artists and Writers
Education: AUB, BA Education 1958

Emily Nasrallah (née Emily Abi Rached) is a Lebanese writer and women's rights activist. She studied at the Beirut University College (now the Lebanese American University) and then the American University of Beirut, where she received her BA degree in education and literature in 1958. Her first novel, Birds of September, was published in 1962 and earned wide acclaim and won three Arabic literary prizes.She became a prolific writer, authoring seven novels, four children's books, and seven short story collections which explore themes such as family roots, Lebanese village life, the war in Lebanon and the struggle of women for independence and self-expression. She has lectured throughout Europe, North America, and the Middle East.

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Charles Abou-Chaar

Plant Medicinal Chemistry Expert

Category: Pioneers in Health
Year At AUB: 1945
Service to AUB: 1945-2007 as professor, 1987 as professor emeritus
Education: AUB, BA; Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, MS; University of Washington, PhD 1961

Charles Abou-Chaar He was a world-renowned expert on plant medicinal chemistry and in many pharmaceutical science disciplines. Abou-Chaar was awarded the education Gold Medal, First Rank, by the Lebanese Ministry of Education; the Bronze Medal of the World Food Day from the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization; the Gold Medal of the Order of Lebanese Pharmacists; and the United Nations FAO Memorial Medal on natural diversity. He was a founding member of the Lebanese Association for the Advancement of Science and the Order of Pharmacists, where he sat on the editorial board of the Lebanese Pharmaceutical Journal, was a member of the administrative and scientific committees, and served as general secretary.

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Amira Kassis

Scientist

Category: Pioneers in Health
Education: AUB, BS Nutrition & Dietetics 2000

(BS 2000, nutrition and dietetics) Amira Kassis is a research scientist at Nestle Research Centre and currently heads a team of nutrition, food and culinary experts working on the nutritional support of the solar impulse project . She made headlines recently in the Wall Street Journal for her work preparing energy-dense and nutrient-rich foods for pilots of the Solar Impulse 2, a solar-powered airplane making a circumnavigation of the globe. Kassis and her team developed a special technique to maintain the quality and safety of the meals provided to the pilots in the harsh conditions of the mission.

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David Stuart Dodge

SPC Co-founder and Theologian

Category: University Founders and Leaders
Year At AUB: 1871
Service to AUB: 1871-1921 as professor of English and Latin and trustee
Education: Yale University; Union Theological Seminary

David Stuart Dodge worked closely with Daniel Bliss to help found AUB's predecessor institution, the Syrian Protestant College. He attended Yale and also received ordination from Union Theological Seminary. He was inspired to join Daniel Bliss in establishing the Syrian Protestant College after hearing him make a speech in New York. Working closely with Daniel Bliss at various tasks, including teaching English and Latin, serving on the board of trustees for forty years, and monitoring workers as they labored on new buildings, Dodge was meticulous and devoted to the College. He invested energy in every new teacher, helping them to adjust and do their best. His gifts to the College have never been tabulated. In his quiet way he made numerous gifts of land and money to the growing school, as well as building Ada Dodge Hall, named for his daughter, and Mary Dodge Hall, named for his wife. He received an honorary doctorate from AUB in 1916.

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Shukri Shammas

Business Leader, Engineer

Category: Innovative Engineers and Scientists
Education: BA 1927, engineering

Shukri Shammas is a co-founder (with Emile Bustani and Abdallah Khoury) of the Contracting and Trading Group (CAT), an integrated engineering, procurement and construction services company. CAT partners granted scholarships to AUB students who would pay back by working at CAT. He was chairman of the Nicola Saab Foundation which substantially contributed to the AUB Medical library) Among his friends his friends at AUB were Charles Malik (BA Economics ’27) and Afif Tannous (BA Sociology ’29). Shammas was a member of the AUB Board of Trustees, 1963-1980; and trustee emeritus, 1980-1993.

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Samir Thabet

Chemist and Leading Administrator

Category: Great Scholars and Teachers
Service to AUB: 1953-1968 as professor; 1969 as associate dean; 1970-75 as provost; 1979-1986 as vice president; 1984 as acting president; 1992-2002 as vice president emeritus

Samir. K. Thabet’s long and distinguished career at AUB was marked by many years of service in administration, several of them during the difficult years of civil strife. He was chair of the Chemistry Department (1969-1984) and also served as associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, university provost and vice president, vice president for academic affairs, and acting president during the troubled months following the assassination of President Malcolm Kerr. Known by students and colleagues as a compelling teacher, Professor Thabet published throughout his academic career a large number of artcles in internationally refereed journals. A versatile and broadly cultivated man, Thabet served as president of the Beirut Rotary Club (1981), as as cultural advisor to the president of the republic (1987). Moving regularly between Lebanon and Paris, Dr. Thabet pursues his life-long passion for painting. He was a fellow of the Paris Salon and has held numerous exhibitions in Beirut and Paris, donating the proceeds from his artwork to scholarships for needy students.

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Nasif al-Yaziji

SPC Professor, Scholar

Category: University Founders and Leaders
Year At AUB: 1869

Nasif al-Yaziji taught Arabic briefly at the Syrian Protestant College when it was first founded. He was a gifted poet and accomplished Arabic scholar who helped to translate the Bible into Arabic, as well as many important scientific texts that became mainstays in education. He, along with his close associate Boutros Bustani, dominated the intellectual life of their time, giving it significant new vitality. Most famous among his numerous publications is Majma’ al Bahrain, which is a collection of poems that contributed significantly to a rebirth of interest in Arabic literature. Nassif’s co-founding of the Society of Arts and Sciences in 1847 helped pave the way for other intellectual societies that led to the Nahda, or Arab Awakening.

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Khalil Hawi

Poet

Category: Virtuoso Artists and Writers
Education: "AUB, BA Teaching of Arabic 1951; AUB, MA Teaching of Arabic

Khalil Hawi studied Arabic at AUB, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees, before earning a scholarship to enroll at Cambridge University, where he was awarded his PhD in 1959. He then became a professor of Arabic literature at AUB. Over the course of his academic career, Hawi embraced Arab nationalism, which figures prominently in his poetry. He was progressive in his treatment of gender issues and pushed Arab political poetry away from motifs of heroism and self-sacrifice toward greater us of metaphor and imagery. Much of his work laments what he saw as the decline of Arab culture in the 20th century, culminating in Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, at which he symbolically took his own life.

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John L. Wilson

Emergency Healthcare Pioneer

Category: Pioneers in Health
Education: Harvard Medical School, MD

A graduate of Harvard Medical Sshool, John Wilson was a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy before coming to AUBMC to become chair of the Department of Surgery, a position he held from 1950-65, after which he became dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1965-68. Among his many contributions to AUBMC, Dr. Wilson established Lebanon’s first 24/7 emergency room and drew up a Disaster Plan for the hospital, which was employed during several crises. In addition, he obtained surgical residency accreditation for AUBMC and helped establish new medical schools throughout the region.

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Huguette Caland

Modernist Painter

Category: Virtuoso Artists and Writers

(former student) Huguette Caland, daughter of Lebanon’s first president Bechara El Khoury, is an abstract painter and sculptor whose work greatly impacted the Lebanese art scene. She has also worked in fashion design, notably for Pierre Cardin. Born in Beirut in 1931, she attended AUB between 1964-1968, where she took classes with John Carswell and Arthur Frick. Caland lived in Paris for many years and eventually moved to Venice, California in 1987, where her work progressed across a wide range of medium. Her art hangs in major museums including Centre Pompidou and the British Museum and her work is regularly featured in solo exhibitions and major group shows, most recently in New York at the Gallery Lombard Freid and the Armory Show, at Frieze Masters London, and at Dubai Modern. She also co-founded INAASH (Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps), which creates jobs for refugee women and sells their embroidery.

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