Five Muslim Scientists Win Prestigious Mustafa Prize 2023

Renowned scientists and researchers from around the world gathered in Isfahan city to honor exceptional contributions to science and technology in the Muslim world.

The event showcased groundbreaking innovations and breakthroughs across various disciplines, including medicine, engineering, chemistry, and physics.

The Mustafa Prize Biennial Event not only celebrated scientific achievements but also fostered dialogue and cooperation among scientists and scholars from diverse backgrounds. The exchange of ideas and knowledge shared at the event will undoubtedly pave the way for future advancements, pushing the boundaries of scientific understanding even further.

Esteemed winners from Iran, Turkiye, Egypt, Lebanon and Cambodia included Omid Farokhzad, Ahmed E. Hassan, Murat Uysal, Samia Khoury and Ahmad Fauzi Ismail who were recognized for their outstanding work in advancing knowledge and improving the lives of people globally.

Omid Farokhzad

Omid Farokhzad is a Professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a physician-scientist in the Department of Anesthesiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Dr. Farokhzad established and directs the Center for Nanomedicine at BWH. He is a faculty member of the Brigham Research Institute Cancer Research Center and the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. Dr. Farokhzad and his team of scientists have developed a myriad of nanotechnologies for medical applications. He has authored more than 160 papers (>46,500 citations; H-Index 89; April 2019) and is an inventor of more than 200 issued/pending patents worldwide.

The technologies that Dr. Farokhzad and colleagues have developed formed the basis for the launch of 4 biotechnology companies: BIND Therapeutics (clinical stage public company acquired by Pfizer), Selecta Biosciences (clinical stage public company), Tarveda Therapeutics (clinical stage private company) and Seer (clinical stage private company). These companies are translating the aforementioned academic innovations toward commercialization and societal impact. Dr.

Farokhzad has served in various capacities on the Executive team, Board of Directors, and the Scientific Advisory Board of these companies. Dr. Farokhzad was inducted in the National Academy of Inventors in 2018, and the College of the Fellows of the American Institute of Medical and biological Engineering in 2012. He was a recipient of the 2013 RUSNANOPRIZE, one of the largest international nanotechnology prizes, for the development and industrialization of nanoparticle technologies for medical applications. In 2014, he received the Golden Door Award from the International Institute of New England for his societal and economic impact as a naturalized USA citizen. In 2015, he was named as one of The Worldview 100 by Scientific American, which recognized visionaries who shape biotechnology around the world. In 2016, he was among the recipients of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his scientific, societal and economic contributions to America as an immigrant. He was selected by Thomson Reuters among the Highly Cited Researchers in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The Boston Globe selected him among the top innovators in Massachusetts and the Boston Business Journal selected him among the Health Care Champions for his innovations. In 2012, he was among the regional Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awardees. He serves on numerous editorial boards including as Associate Editor of ACS Nano (impact factor ~14). Dr. Farokhzad completed his post-graduate clinical and post-doctoral research trainings, respectively, at the BWH/HMS and MIT in the laboratory of Institute Professor Robert Langer. He received his M.D. and M.A. from Boston University School of Medicine and his M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Ahmed E. Hassan

Ahmed E. Hassan is the NSERC/RIM Industrial Research Chair in Software Engineering for Ultra Large Scale systems and the Canada Research Chair in Software Analytics at the School of Computing in Queen's University. Dr. Hassan spearheaded the organization and creation of the Mining Software Repositories (MSR) conference and its research community. He co-edited special issues of the IEEE Transaction on Software Engineering and the Journal of Empirical Software Engineering on the MSR topic. Early tools and techniques developed by Dr. Hassan's team are already integrated into products used by millions of users worldwide. Dr. Hassan industrial experience includes helping architect the Blackberry wireless platform at RIM, and working for IBM Research at the Almaden Research Lab and the Computer Research Lab at Nortel Networks. Dr. Hassan is the named inventor of patents at several jurisdictions around the world including the United States, Europe, India, Canada, and Japan. Dr. Hassan received the Ph.D., MMath, and BMath degrees from the School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Murat Uysal

Murat Uysal received BSc and MSc degrees in electronics and communication engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, in 1995 and 1998, respectively, and his PhD degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, USA, in 2001.

Uysal began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada in 2002 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2007. In 2011, he joined Ozyegin University, Turkey where he served as the Department Chair of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and the Founding Director of Center of Excellence in Optical Wireless Communication Technologies (OKATEM). In September 2023, he joined New York University Abu Dhabi as a Professor of Electrical Engineering with tenure.

Uysal's research interests are in the broad area of communication theory with a particular emphasis on the physical layer aspects of wireless communication systems in radio and optical frequency bands. On these topics, he has authored some 400 journal and conference papers and received more than 20.000 citations with an h-index of 63. Uysal is an IEEE Fellow and the former Chair of IEEE Turkey Section. He currently serves as an Area Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications. In the past, he served as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, and IEEE Communications Letters. He was involved in the organization of several IEEE conferences at various levels. In particular, he served as the Technical Program Committee Chair of major IEEE conferences including WCNC 2014, PIMRC 2019, and VTC-Fall 2019. Between 2011-2015, he was the Chair of EU COST Action OPTICWISE, a high-profile consolidated European scientific platform which brought together more than 150 researchers in the research area of optical wireless communication.

Uysal’s major distinctions include NSERC Discovery Accelerator Award in 2008, University of Waterloo Engineering Research Excellence Award in 2010, Turkish Academy of Sciences Distinguished Young Scientist Award in 2011, Ozyegin University Outstanding Researcher Award in 2014, National Instruments Engineering Impact Award in 2017, Elginkan Foundation Technology Award in 2018, IEEE Communications Society Best Survey Paper Award in 2019 and IEEE Turkiye Section Outstanding Service Award in 2021 among others.

Samia Khoury

Dr. Khoury is a professor of neurology and immunology at the American University of Beirut.Since October 2011, Dr. Khoury has served as the Director of the Abu Haidar Neuroscience Institute, and the Director of the new AUBMC Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Center at AUBMC in Beirut, the first MS center in the region. from 2012-2021 she served as Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research at the American University of Beirut. From 2009-2013 she was the Jack, Sadie, and David Breakstone professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and served as the co-Director of the Partners Multiple Sclerosis Center, Boston since 2001. In 2007, Dr. Khoury was awarded the prestigious Kuwait Prize for Sciences by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences for her work in immunology. in 2022 she was awarded the King Salman Prize for disability research.
Dr. Khoury received her Medical Diploma from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, in 1984 having been elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society in 1983. She completed her neurology residency at the Case Western Reserve University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio and her fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Neurologic Diseases.
Dr. Khoury is recognized as a world leader in MS, she has trained tens of investigators who are now active leaders in MS and Immunology research. She has published over 200 scholarly articles, reviews, and book chapters. Moreover, she is leading the first National Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Campaign in Lebanon in collaboration with the Ministry of Public health for the year 2013.

Ahmad Fauzi Ismail

Dr. Ahmad Fauzi Ismail is the Founder and First Director of Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC). His research interest are in the development of polymeric, inorganic and novel mixed matrix membranes for water desalination, waste water treatment, gas separation processes, membrane for palm oil refining, photocatalytic membrane for removal of emerging contaminants, development of haemodialysis membrane and polymer electrolyte membrane for fuel cell applications. Professor Datuk Fauzi obtained a PhD. in Chemical Engineering in 1997 from University of Strathclyde and MSc. and BSc. from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 1992 and 1989 respectively.

He is the author and co-author of over 550 journal articles. He has authored 6 books, 50 book chapters and 8 edited books. He is the owner/co-owner to 6 patents with 14 patents pending. His h-index is currently 67 (SCOPUS) and 58 (Web of Science). His publications had been cited 19,348 times in SCOPUS and 13,493 times in Web of Science.

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