American University of Sharjah (AUS) engineering professor Dr. Fadi Ahmed Aloul was awarded the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Young Arab Researchers. Dr. Aloul, who received the award for Mathematics and Information Technology, is the only UAE-based winner this year. An award ceremony will be held in Amman, Jordan, later this summer.

The 31st Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Young Arab Researchers for 2012 was presented by the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation and the winners were announced after six months of reviewing scientific works of over 140 candidates from universities around the Arab World.

According to Dr. Aloul, Associate Professor in Computer Science and Engineering, "This award reflects that the UAE is an active contributor to research in the Arab world. Receiving it is an honor that my family and I will cherish, as will my colleagues and students at AUS. I hope this will encourage others to continue producing good research expanding the scientific community of the Arab region."

Launched in 1982, the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Young Arab Researchers aims to promote scientific research in the Arab region. Candidates for the award must be of Arab origin and under 45 years of age, and must be nominated by two professors from an academic institution in the Arab world. The candidate should have academic and social value in the scientific community of an Arab country.

This year's Abdul Hameed Shoman Award was presented to other disciplinary fields including medical sciences, engineering sciences, agricultural sciences, social sciences, and physics and geology. Candidates were awarded based on the originality of their research, the number of publications and citations, their research methodology, and the outstanding contributions to the research.

In the past, Dr. Aloul has also been awarded the His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Award for Higher Education and the AUS Excellence in Teaching Award.