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Anticipating a Fire’s Sudden Takeoff

Why do some hillside fires suddenly rush off? A Fire Safety Journal study by Dr. Gilbert Accary, associate professor at the School of Engineering, suggests that fire-induced wind is a key factor. Using numerical simulations, he found that on sloping terrain, wide fire fronts can generate their own wind, feeding the flames and substantially altering fire behavior. Understanding this feedback mechanism is crucial for identifying the conditions under which a slope fire can rapidly accelerate, with direct implications for firefighting.

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Launching the Beirut Economics Research Seminar Series

In collaboration with the American University of Beirut, LAU launched the Beirut Economics Research Seminar Series on September 10, 2025. The inaugural lecture featured Dr. Walid Marrouch, professor of economics and associate dean of Graduate Studies and Research, who presented his paper Emissions Taxes and Market Power: Linked vs. Unlinked Market Failures. Held at the Adnan Kassar School of Business, the talk examined abatement strategies and their policy implications, emphasizing how addressing market failures can inform sustainable tax design.

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Decoding Antibiotic-Resistant Infections

In collaboration with colleagues from the Universities of Munich and Dortmund, Dr. Elias Akoury has co-authored a paper in the prestigious Angewandte Chemie, investigating how bacteria utilize a chemical “message,” c-di-AMP (cyclic diadenylate monophosphate), to regulate growth and activate disease-related genes. Using solution NMR spectroscopy and biophysical chemical techniques, the researchers found that when this message binds to its partner protein, PstA, it prompts flexible regions of the protein to change shape. These shifts finetune protein interactions, providing insights into antibiotic-resistant infections.

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Marketing Faculty Nominated for the Prestigious THE Awards Arab World 2025

Two LAU marketing faculty have made the shortlist for the Times Higher Education Awards for the Arab World 2025, surpassing more than 700 submissions to the top eight. For the second year running, Associate Professor Zahy Ramadan was nominated for the Most Innovative Teacher of the Year Award. Additionally, Assistant Professor Lara Khabbaz’s co-authored paper on rural women’s entrepreneurship was shortlisted for the Research Project of the Year in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences category.

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LAU and LCPS Sign MOU to Advance Policy Research and Education

In a step to provide policymakers with evidence-based insights, LAU and the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS), an independent non-profit think tank, signed an MOU to advance research, education and policy development via the university’s Department of Economics. The agreement will focus on innovation, capacity building and practical applications of policy and governance studies through joint research projects, hosting events and workshops, and developing educational material in public policy, among others.

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SoAS Establishes Awards to Honor Emerging Scholars

The School of Arts and Sciences (SoAS) has launched the Elie Rizk Research Excellence Awards to recognize exceptional student-led research. Supported by a generous donation from the family of the late Mr. Elie Rizk, the awards honor graduate and undergraduate students, including recent alumni, who serve as lead authors on high-impact publications. In light of the school’s dedication to promoting academic achievements, awardees will be recognized during the SoAS Awards Ceremony on May 16, 2025.

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Dr. Chaouki Abdallah Honored as AAAS Fellow

LAU President Chaouki T. Abdallah has been named a 2024 Fellow of the pre-eminent American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his distinguished contributions to research in control, communications, and computing systems, and leadership in higher education. The AAAS is the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society dedicated to advancing science, engineering, and innovation worldwide, and the publisher of the Science family of journals. An AAAS fellowship is a lifetime honor and is highly regarded in the scientific community.

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Lebanon’s Economic Crisis Pushes 60 Percent of the Population Into Poverty

According to the findings of the most recent study co-authored by Dr. Walid Marrouch, professor of economics and assistant dean of graduate studies and research at LAU, at least 60 percent of the Lebanese population now lives below the poverty line as a result of the ongoing economic crisis. The analysis of the study underscores the pressing need for comprehensive reforms to tackle the country’s collapsing economy and its devastating impact on its citizens. 

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Creative Writing at LAU: Top 1 Percent in Literary Studies

Now in his second year among the top 2 percent of researchers worldwide, LAU Associate Professor Sleiman El Hajj has ranked among the top 1 percent in Literary Studies (121 out of 17,976) by Scopus-Elsevier, achieving the highest ranking globally for Creative Writing scholars. Dr. El Hajj expressed pride “in having placed Lebanese creative writing on the academic map,” noting how its integration with quantitative algorithms enhances its standing internationally.

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Dr. Dumitru Baleanu Awarded the Liu-Hui Prize

Professor at LAU’s School of Arts and Sciences Dumitru Baleanu has received the 2024 Liu-Hui Prize—a prestigious award that honors contributions to the field of mathematics—at the 2nd International Conference on Mathematical Analysis, Applications and Computational Simulation, China. This award recognizes Dr. Baleanu’s contributions to fractional variational principles and their applications in control theory, notably through co-developing the Atangana-Baleanu fractional derivative, a mathematical tool with broad applications in science and engineering.

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