Trieste (Italy) - 3 Feb 2022, Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin, member of Board of Trustees of Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED), has received the prestigious Salam Award from the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). The Center said in a statement that “the Award recognizes those who have worked tirelessly to promote the development of science and technology in disadvantaged parts of the world.”
ICPT, based in Trieste, Italy, was founded in 1964 by the late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, the first Pakistani and Muslim scientist to win a Nobel Prize in 1979, after whom the Award has been named. The center seeks to accomplish its mandate by providing scientists from developing countries with continuing education and skills, and has been a major force in stemming the scientific brain drain from the third world.
ICPT explained in a statement that Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin of Kuwait received the Award "for his unwavering, long-time support of ICTP's mission and his exceptional advocacy of the Center among other institutions." He has initiated a relationship between ICTP and various Kuwait institutions, after meeting Abdus Salam in Kuwait in 1976. At that time he was the Vice President of Kuwait University and Director General of Kuwait institute for Scientific Research, one of the most important research centres in the Gulf region.
After retiring from his last position as Director General of Kuwait Institute for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), Dr. Shihab-Eldin continues to be active in energy and development, as a Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), Oxford (UK), and a board member of both the Kearney Energy Transition Institute, Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Gulf Bank of Kuwait. Besides his long relation with AFED as active Board member, Shihab-Eldin serves as member of numerous boards of directors and international advisory councils of academic and research institutions.
Dr. Shihab-Eldin received all his degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and has received many prestigious awards, including the 2017 Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award, from UC Berkeley.
Besides Shihab-Eldin, the recipients of the 2022 Spirit of Abdus Salam Award were Malik Maaza and Concetta Mosca, two renowned scientists from South Africa and Italy respectively.