Department Head's Message

Welcome to the Department of Chemical Engineering at AUS. Chemical Engineering is the application of engineering principles to chemical processes of all types, industrial, environmental, and biomedical. Our program is fully accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, which means that it meets or exceeds quality standards set by the profession. It is structured to provide the necessary skills in humanities and social sciences, mathematics, basic sciences, and engineering sciences and design consistent with accreditation requirements and regional needs. At the graduate-level, the department offers a program leading to a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering, which includes advanced topics in chemical engineering and a strong foundation in research, both fundamental and applied. The department is also home to the Petroleum Engineering minor, which offers students across engineering knowledge of drilling, production, and reservoir engineering.

Our faculty and laboratory instructors represent a wide variety of experiences in both industry and education, and are committed to providing the optimal educational experience. Our program is designed to provide students with a solid foundation in theory and classical methods, as well as in modern solution techniques. Our faculty continue to monitor trends in the field of chemical engineering, and to evaluate our curriculum. The result is a program tailored to the requirements of students at the American University of Sharjah.

We are pleased to include over 300 students in our programs; approximately half of whom are women. Our graduates are working in the petroleum sector, the environmental field, water resources, metals, and many other fields across the world. Many of them also seek advanced degrees, at universities in the US, Canada, the UK, and in the UAE, including at AUS.

This academic year (2010-2011) brings many changes and challenges, and with them come new opportunities. Ghaleb Husseini will be on sabbatical this year and we wish him the best. We welcome the return of Ibrahim Abu-Reesh as a Visiting Professor for the year. We also welcome Manooch Salehabadi, who will be joining us in the fall semester as a Cambridge Fellow in Petroleum Engineering. This year, we also look forward to the first graduates of our MSChE program, and to the continued growth of the MS program.

I invite you to browse our web site for more information, and please contact me if you have an inquiry.

Dana Stevenson-Abouelnasr, PhD
Department Head