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AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT, DECEMBER 4, 1969
Department of Chemistry Is Well Equipped For Research and Solid Graduate Program The Chemistry Department at AUB is "fairly well equipped," to offer a solid graduate program leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees In various fields of Chemistry, according to the Department Chairman, Dr. Makhluf Haddadin, associate professor of chemistry. The Department also serves as an active center for research which, since the early 1950's to the present, has resulted not only in a steady rise of published papers in recognized international journals, but also to some important discoveries and patents. Most of the faculty in the Chemistry Department of AUB are presently engaged in active research which will eventually lead to publIcations in recognized international journals. This, according to Dr. Haddadin, is the "backbone" of the program in Chemistry at AUB as well as to train students to become independent researchers. The fields of research include: coordination chemistry; nitrogen and phosphorus; gas chromatography; synthetic and mechanistic studIes: heterocyclic compounds, photochemical transtormations, transIent mtermediates, physical-organic studies on organometallIcs; spectroscopy; surface reactions; physical chemIstry of proteins, thermodynamics of solutions and of biolo-
gICal systems; and synthesis and characterization of thermally stable polymers. The Chemistry Department is located in a new six-storey building which includes an air-conditioning as well as a heating system. Although the building is not entirely air-conditioned, the system is sufficient enough to be conducive to research dunng the summer months. Major research equipment includes: NMR spectrometer, high resolution IR and UV-VIS spectrophotometers, gas chromatograph, spectropholaimeter, microcalorimeter, ultra-centrifuge, amino-acid analyzer, atomic absorption spectrometer; also faCIlIties for cryogenic work and IBM computers.
Committee Formed to Study Means Of Improving and Modernizing HIP A Hospital Insurance Plan (HIP) AdVIsory Committee has been formed to review ways and means by whIch the plan can be modernized and improved, announced Vice President Dwight C. Monnier. The Committee which meets on a regular basis has decided to reduce the Class II rate subscription. The new rates for thIS class will apply retroactive to October 1, 1969. The decision was taken because the HIP Committee found that the overall rate increase implemented on October 1, 1969, disproportionately affects those persons in the class II category, m particular a large group which can least afford the increase. The AUB administration has agreed to apply the reduction. The Committee also recommended, and the administration agreed, to keep the plan optional for families of wages personnel as it was before October 1, 1969. Vice President Monnier, who presides over the Committee's meetings, declared that it has become obvious to the HIP Committee that the present plan has outgrown its operating concept as originally conceived because of the AUB Community's growth. The Plan is presently serving over 11,000 members.
Because of this the HIP CommIttee will be studying over the next few months how to improve the system to better serve the Community. The study will review total medical services mcluding hospitalization, medical care, and health services to the Community as a whole, as well as the role of the university health service in conjUctlOn with the hospital msurance plan. Dr. Monnier stated that whatever changes may be made, it IS not only fair but essential that the plan must be self-supporting. He added that the plan may ultimately take the form of a cooperative structure to be operated and managed by its subscribers. The HIP Committee members mclude VICe President Monnier, Chairman; Dr. Craig Lichtenwalner, dean of the faculty of medical sciences; Dr. Raif Nassif, director of the school of medicine; Dr. Riad Tabbara of the school of Medicine; Mr. David Egee, hospital director; Mr. Farid Fuleihan, director of personnel; Mr. John Gill, director of operations; Dr. James Heyl, director of infirmary; Mr. Karam Karam, benefits coordinator; Mr. Donald Meyer, comptroller; Dr. Mary Regier of the department of mathematics; Mr. John Saba of the AUB Employees Syndicate.
There is a faculty of fourteen Ph.D.'s two of which are at present on sabbatical. There are three main divisions within the Chemistry Department: inorganic, organic and physical chemistry. The graduate program offered is comparable to those of universities of equal size in Europe and the United States. Dr. Haddadin pointed out that the norm of the chemistry students who receive their B.S. from AUB on the advanced chemistry test of the GRE IS higher than the norm of American chemistry students. Out of an approximately 100 annual applicants for graduate work, only about 15 are selected. At present there are 27 graduate students In chemistry, 5 of whom are working for theIr Ph.D.'s. The research program itself is the result of the combined efforts of the graduate students, the professors in charge of directmg them, the research assistants and associates as well as the work of the professors themselves. The only serious drawback of the program of the Department of ChemIstry at AUB, according to Dr. Haddadin, is the "lack of dynamic contact WIth the scientifIC community due to its geographIcal situation." In order to minimize this defICIency, the Department sponsors wee~dy public lectures in the form of seminars to which local as well as foreign SCIentists are inVIted to speak. On the average, about five to seven prominant foreign scientists participate in this program every year.
Dr. Cowan Attends Food Technology Meet Dr. James W. Cowan, assistant dean of the Faculty of Agricultural SCIences and assoCIate professor of food technology and nutritIOn, attended the International Symposium on the Impact of Food Processing on Nutntion which was held in Montebello, Quebec, Canada, from October 22-26, 1969. The symposium was sponsored by four agencies: the InternatIOnal Committee on Food Science and Technology, International Union of Nutrition Science, Food Research Institute of Canada Department of Agriculture, and Canada Institute of Food Technology. Travel and subsistence grant was awarded by the Beirut office of the Ford Foundation. Participants came from 14 different countries, and Dr. Cowan was the only participant from the Middle East.
Dr. Khachadurian Attends Medical Symposium in Chicago Dr. Avedis Khachadurian, associate professor of biochemistry and internal medicine, participated in the Second International Symposium on Athero-sclerosis held in Chicago November 2-5. Dr. Khachadurian also served on an international com¡ mittee to plan a study to investigate the various factors contributing to coronary heart disease in the young. The committee, composed of thirteen members representing countries from all over the world, was selected by the International Society of Cardiology. Lebanon was selected because of the studIes emanating from the American University of Beirut on the relatIOn of some hereditary forms of hypercholesterolemia to atherosclerosis. During his three-week tour of the U.S. Dr. Khachadurian viSIted, lectured or partiCIpated in semmars m varIOus medical centers, notably Harvard University, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Columbia and Rockefeller Universilles and University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The trip was supported by a grant from the Lebanese Research Council.
Gibran Film, Poetry Recording Are Considered Plans for producing a documentary film about Gibran and a recording of his poetry are presently under study by members of the Glbran International Festival with Feyrouz, the Lebanese singer, Messrs. 'Asi and Mansour Rahbani, composers and entertainment promoters; and Mr. Sabri Sharif, their business associate. The Gibran Committee members meetmg with the Lebanese singer and composers were Mr. Nabeel Ashkar, and Profs. John Munro and Suheil Bushrui, together with Mr. Yusuf Ibrahim Yazbeck, the Gibran Festival Advisor. At a meeting held on November 22, it was agreed in pnnciple that a film and recordmg should be made, hopefully in time for the Festival. The group will meet again next week to discuss the project in more detail. Several of Gibran's poems have already been set to music by Mr. 'Asi Rahbani, most notably "A'tini al Naya wa Ghanni," which has become one of Feyrouz's most popular recordings.