6 30 48 1<None> Uniquely Positioned Healthcare for the New Millennium A Matter of Opinion The IFI is up for a good debate AUB receives the largest gift in its history For veteran journalist Michael Young (BA ’85), it helps to get a little bit angry American University of Beirut Magazine. Spring 2014, Vol XII, No.2 Forward Thinking Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs Aiducation. Hanaa Dakour Aridi was raised in a village in Mount student government. All of these activities have helped Lebanon called Baissour. Her mom is an amazing housewife make her the person she wants to be. After medical and her father is a construction worker. Hanaa's older school, she plans to do research in surgery and brother studied engineering and is now working abroad. obstetrics/gynecology and then take the USMLE Hanaa attended a private school in her village until Grade 6 (United States Medical Licensing Examination). when she had to move to a public school where she spent six years. Her high scores on the Lebanese Baccalaureate Attending AUB was not just a dream for Hanaa, it was exam got her a three-year scholarship to AUB. After she impossible. Thanks to the financial support she got from finished her BS in biology, Hanaa entered medical school. AUB and from the Dubai and Northern Emirates Alumni She will be graduating in June. Chapter, Hanaa was able to do just that−the impossible. In addition to being a medical student, Hanaa has been a private tutor, had a part-time job, and got involved in To speak to someone about supporting financial aid, contact us at giving(at)aub.edu.lb or make an online gift at https://give.aub.edu.lb The MainGate Spring 2014 Contents Volume XII, No. 2 Student life, the liberal arts, AUB personalities Inspiration 5 past and present Uniquely Positioned 6 With an iconic new home and a heavy hitting policy agenda, the Issam Fares Institute is creating all kinds of debates. Discoveries 19 Research, the arts, and current events Change Agents 22 SHARP researchers launch the offensive against regional diseases. Wellness 29 AUBMC 2020, health, and medicine Healthcare for the New Millennium 30 The Halim and Aida Daniel Academic and Clinical Center is set to transform medical care in the Middle East. Impact 37 Regional impact, advocacy, and policy initiatives Food Insecurity 44 FAFS tackles the human rights dimensions of food security. AUB Everywhere 47 Alumni profile, class notes, WAAAUB, and chapter news A Matter of Opinion Veteran author and journalist Michael Young 48 (BA ’85) is a trusted barometer of the political climate in Lebanon and the region. In Memoriam 66 Presidenting Looking Ahead ILLUMINATING Hadid’s visionary design reflects the way in which AUB also looks toward In contrast to these long-established the future in its commitment toward areas of AUB strengths, the Issam shaping emerging societies. The Fares Institute for Public Policy and building, with its modern International Affairs looks to events communications technologies, that are currently in motion, examining is already being used by other contemporary issues that pose complex faculties and centers at AUB. challenges to countries of the Arab world, and exploring how public policy ALLEVIATING plays a role in addressing these issues. Recent projects have been focused Dealing with refugees from Syria is on climate change, youth in the Arab now one of Lebanon’s most pressing world, conflict resolution, and now problems. It is not just a concern for the burgeoning Syrian refugee the IFI. AUB has also coordinated problem. The institute has moved efforts to alleviate, at least in a small into a stunning, modernistic building way, the tragic suffering that is now Perfecting the art of CELEBRATING on the Green Oval designed by the happening on an epic scale. Student the selfie. renowned Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, clubs have been gathering donations 2014 is a banner year for building an AUB student in mathematics during of clothing and blankets, and our dedications. In winter, AUBMC her undergraduate years. It is her first Center for Civic Engagement and opened the Wassef and Souad completed building in the Arab region. Community Service together with Sawwaf Building, a sleek modern faculty from FEA have designed simple facility that contains offices for the but sturdy shelters that can be erected University Health Services as well Hadid’s visionary out of local materials and adapted for President Dorman on as shielded rooms for the Medical use as schoolrooms or modest homes, campus celebrations, Center’s first PET-CT scan and design reflects the according to need. Our AREC campus relief efforts and staying in touch. cyclotron, reflecting AUB’s historic way in which AUB also in the Beqa’a has been distributing mission to provide the best in patient food from its farm produce and AUBMC care for our own community and the looks toward the future has set up field clinics in the Beqa’a, as people of Lebanon and the region. in its commitment well as a mobile unit in the north to see The building is a gift to AUB from toward shaping to immediate health needs, all thanks Mu’taz Sawwaf, one of AUB’s newest to generous donors to AUB; some trustees, and named for his parents. emerging societies. patients are brought to Beirut for treatment if necessary. As for education, Similarly, the Irani-Oxy Engineering special donations have also made it Complex will open this fall, designed possible for AUB to admit some Syrian to affirm and expand AUB’s historic ACCENTUATING refugee students. legacy in graduating the region’s There’s no question that the new IFI best engineering students. Located building has spurred many comments, COMMUNICATING on the lower campus in the heart of both pro and con. The insertion of Tweeting is a great way to connect the engineering campus and open to a poured concrete structure next to informally, although I don’t use it the sun on its northern and southern historic buildings built over a century consistently: I find my tweets come faces, the IOEC is equipped with ago has dismayed a number of observers. in bursts. Perhaps one advantage is modern laboratory equipment and There’s hardly a vertical wall in the that you’re limited in text, so you can’t provides badly needed space for institute, aside from the elevator shaft, go on too long. I love hearing feedback, growing programs in engineering but to the surprise of many visitors especially from students, and it’s a as well as offices to accommodate who walk inside, the towering great way to discover what friends and graduate students in their advanced concrete shell is flooded with interior public figures in Lebanon are on about. work. Be sure to look at the punctuated light spread through skylights and sliding metal screens over the windows green-tinted glass walls, providing an -K.D. for impressions of woodland trees. edgy but welcoming atmosphere. 32 Inbox To our readers worldwide, Please keep your comments coming on the redesign of the magazine and your ideas for future issues. Fall is right around the corner. Here are some notable moments and quotes from this magazine: Cover The Green Oval boasts bold lines in the newly inaugurated Issam Fares “My dream right now is a dream for the Middle East, to see real liberal democracy Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, happen here. This is what drives my career.” designed by architect –Lina Khatib (BS ’98), pg. 64 Zaha Hadid. Photo by Eid Atallah. “A recent study of three rural Lebanese communities found 19 percent of families to be food insecure.” pg. 44 “The best articles are when you are a little bit angry.” Editor –Michael Young (BA ’85), pg. 48 Ada H. Porter Director of Communications “It might seem strange to think of a Sufi artist stuck in Cairo’s traffic and staying in Responsible Director composure or at peace, but feeling Zen is a state of mind.” Nabil Dajani Art Direction and Design –Rana Chalabi (BA ’81), pg. 65 Communication Design SAL www.cd-sal.com “Dr. McDonald had a profound impact on my life: first by operating on me, and then Production by advising me on what to do with my life.” Office of Communications Photography –Fayez Suidan (BA ’51, MD ’55), pg. 57 Eid Atallah Hasan Nisr Fifty-three percent of the officially registered refugees in Lebanon are under Jean Pierre Tarabey University Libraries, Archives the age of 18. pg. 38 and Special Collections Staff Writers “Education is a right, but it should be treated as a privilege.” Susanne Lane Barbara Rosica –Nerses Arslanian, pg. 14 Contributing Writers Maureen Ali Nerses Arslanian Ada H. Porter, Editor Nicholas Boke maingate(at)aub.edu.lb Jean Marie Cook Kathy Dorman Mishka Mojabber Mourani Sally Kaya Najjar ACS CASAR FEA IFI OSB Marwan Sabban American Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Faculty of Issam Fares Institute Suliman S. Olayan Nisa Wilson Community School Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Engineering for Public Policy and School of Business Abbr. Center for American and Architecture International Affairs AUB PSPA Studies and Research American University FHS KSA Department of Political of Beirut CCECS Faculty of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Studies and Public American University of Beirut Center for Civic Health Sciences Administration AUBMC LAU Common Engagement and Office of Communications American University of FM Lebanese American REP abbreviations Community Service PO Box 11–0236 found in the Beirut Medical Center Faculty of Medicine University Regional Riad El Solh 1107 2020 FAFS External Programs MainGate (MG): CAMES HSON LDEM Beirut, Lebanon Faculty of Agricultural Center for Arab and Rafic Hariri School Landscape Design and SPC Tel: 961-1-353228 and Food Sciences Middle Eastern Studies of Nursing Ecosystem Management Syrian Protestant College FAS CAMS IC NCC WAAAUB New York Office Faculty of Arts Center for Advanced International College Nature Conservation Worldwide Alumni 3 Dag Hammarskjold and Sciences Mathematical Sciences Center for Sustainable Association of AUB Plaza 8th Floor Futures New York, NY 10017–2303 Tel: 212-583-7600 [email protected] www.aub.edu.lb/maingate www.fsc.org Printing Lane Press The pages of the MainGate are printed on 100 percent postconsumer fiber paper and the cover is 30 percent.