Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy

Chancellor of the University of Sharjah, President of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences (AUASS)

Prior to his appointment as Chancellor of the University of Sharjah on 01-20-2014, Prof. Hamid M.K. Al Naimiy served as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College of Sciences, UOS, UAE, from 2010-2015.

Also Prof. Al- Naimiy served as Acting Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences & Dean of the College of Sciences, UOS, UAE, from 2008-2010. and served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences , UOS, UAE,from 2006-2008.

Prior to occupying different positions at the University of Sharjah, Prof. Al-Naimiy worked at different universities in the UAE and the Arab world :

Chairman of the Physics Department, UAE University, Al Ain, UAE, from 2001-2006
Dean / Institute of Astronomy and Space Science, Al al-Bayt University, Jordan, 1994-2001.
Chair / Physics Department /College of Science/ University of Baghdad/ 1990 - 1994
Director General /Astronomy and Space Science Center/Iraqi Council for Scientific Research/ President Office, 1980 - 1989.
Vice President of the Academic Iraqi Scientific Societies 1982- 1988.
General Secretary of Arab Union for physics & Mathematics 1984-1990.

Prof. Al-Naimiy obtained the Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from The University of Baghdad; 1971. He graduated from Manchester University; UK with the Masters degree in Astronomy and Doctoral Degree in Astrophysics in 1975 and 1978 respectively.

Prof. Al-Naimiy is well known internationally for his contributions to teaching and research in the fields of Applied Physics, Astronomy and Space Sciences. He has won several regional and international awards in recognition of original research and for innovations that led to advancements in his field of specialization. Some of these awards are:
Khalifa Award for Education 2009/2010 (In the Field of Higher Education & Research).
Korea Astronomy & Space Science Institute Plaque, in recognition of his contribution to the 2009 UN/NASA/ESA/JAXA workshop on Basic Space Sciences and the International Heliophysical Year 2007, September 22nd , 2009. Daejeon/Korea.
NASA Plaque in Recognition of his contributions as the Coordinator for the Asian & Pacific region on IHY2007, for the period 2005 – 2009.
UN appreciation letter for scientists who displayed excellence in organizing the UN/ESA workshops. The 3rd UN/ESA/NASA workshop, Tokyo/Japan, 18th – 22nd, May, 2007.
Personality of the Week .The International Heliophysical Year IHY2007.In the occasion of the 50years anniversary for IGY, Launching​ the 1st world space rocket Sputnik. IHY International Committee, June 8th, 2007.
The Award for the best department chair, teacher and researcher for the year 2006 from UAE University.
Included in International Marquis Who's Who for the 21st century, 19th Edition, 2002.
The best scientific public media Publication Prize. The Iraqi Scientific Research Council 1987, Baghdad, Iraq.
The best Scientific Researcher Prize. The Iraqi Scientific Research Council 1984, Baghdad, Iraq.

Chancellor Alnaimy has published over 120 refereed journal papers, 32 books and more than 800 articles and supervised more than 30PhD and Masters graduate students to completion. Also he has more than 500 TV interviews to his name. He taught many different courses in Physics, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in many Universities (UK, Iraq, Jordan and UAE); chaired many Scientific organizing Committees for International and Regional conferences; attended more than 100 International and Regional Conferences and was the General Coordinator for the Developing Science Teaching Project for secondary school teachers 2009-2015. Also he has extensive editorial experience in science related journals such as :- Editor in Chief / Bin Al-Haitham Journal for Science and Technology / 2005 – 2006.;Member of Editorial Board / International Journal for Applied Physics / India 2004 - to date.; Editor in Chief / the Universe Magazine, Issues by the AUASS, 2005 - 2011.Editor in Chief / International Journal for scientific Research / Faculty of Science, United Arab Emirates University, 2001- 2006 and Editor in Chief / Science Magazine / Iraq (1989 – 1994).

Prof. Al-Naimiy is an active member in many International Societies and Organizations that deal with Astronomy and Space Sciences. Some of these societies are: The International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI) Organized by UN/ESA/NASA/JAXA , September 2009 – 2012( as UAE National coordinator),; UAE Representative for the IAY2009, Supervised and implemented by International Astronomical Union and UNESCO, 2009; Regional Coordinator and UAE representatives / IHY / NASA, 2005 – to date ; the Higher Council in the International Astronomy without Boarder Association 2004 – to date ; International Society of Searching for Intelligent life in the Universe 1981 - to date; International Astronomical Union 1980--- to date and the International Variable Stars Society 1980 - to date.

Prof. Al-Naimiy has contributed in the establishment and building of many active projects related to Astronomy and Space Sciences; some of which are: Sharjah Astronomy Center for Astronomy and Space Sciences , 2013-2015 ; Albayte Institute for Astronomy and Space Sciences; Ibn-AlShater Astronomy Park, Al-Albayte University, Jordan 1994-2001 .; Maragaha Observatory, Al-Albayte University , Jordan, 1995 .; The Iraqi Astronomical Observatory , Korek Mountain , North Iraq , 1980 – 1990, which was​ the 10th largest Observatory in the world in that time.

Dr. Obaid Al Muhairi

Former Executive Dean of Arabic Language and Emirati Studies, Higher Colleges of Technology and BOT of the Academic Committee Chair

Mr. Mohammed Abdallah

Chief Executive Officer of Sharjah Islamic Bank & BOT Chairman of Finance Committee

Mr. Mohammed Abdallah is the Chief Executive Officer of Sharjah Islamic Bank. He is an influential figure in the finance industry remarkably recognized individually and also on behalf of the organization by prominent awards including Forbes International & Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award, Union of Arab Banks; respectively among others.

He currently holds vital positions in various prominent institutions namely-

Member of the Board of Trustees & Chairman of Finance Committee – University of Sharjah

Board Member of Sharjah Establishment for supporting of pioneer projects (RUWAD)

Board member of Sharjah Equestrian Club

Deputy Chairman of ASAS Company

Deputy Chairman Sharjah National Hotels

And a few other vital positions

Dr. Mansour Bin Nassar

The Legal Advisor and Chairman of Sharjah Government & Legal Department, and BOT Internal Audit and Compliance Committee

Mansour bin Nassar is proud to have obtained three degrees from the University of Sharjah, a bachelor's in law in 2004, a master's in public law in 2012, and a PHD. In public law in 2017 with a grade of excellence at a rate of 4/4.

On the scientific and academic level, Bin Nassar chaired the University of Sharjah Alumni Association for two consecutive sessions (2011-2015), and also chaired the Advisory Board of the College of Law (2018-2020), and he currently chairs the Compliance and Audit Committee of the Board of Trustees of Al Qasimia University, and he also teaches administrative law, constitutional law and political systems. At the Sharjah Academy of Police Sciences, and has published numerous research and articles in the field of law.

On the professional level, Bin Nassar worked as a legal researcher in the government of Sharjah, then moved to work as a director of the legal administration in the office of His Highness the Ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah in 2009, until the legal department of the government of Sharjah was established in 2020 and he was appointed as its chairman and legal advisor to the government by an Amiri decree from the Ruler of Sharjah.

Mansour bin Nassar has chaired the Higher Committee for the Sharjah Consultative Council Elections since 2015, and has been chairing the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee since 2014, and he has been a member of the Technical Committee for Federal Legislation since 2009, a member of the Higher Committee for Human Resources for the Emirate of Sharjah, a member of the Board of Directors of the Sharjah Social Security Fund since 2017 and He is the first Secretary General of the Sharjah Prize in Public Finance since its inception in 2017 and until now.

Dr. Muhadditha Al Hashimi

Chairperson of the Sharjah Private Education Authority, BOT Emiratization Committee for Academic and Administrative Positions Chair

Dr. Muhadditha Al Hashimi, is the Chairperson of the Sharjah Private Education Authority, a body established with the aim of regulating private education in the Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Also, HE serves as the President of the Sharjah Education Academy, a non-profit graduate school of education and professional learning institution. Prior to her appointment, Dr. AlHashimi held several senior positions in higher education and healthcare institutions. She was the Campus Director of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) Sharjah Women & Men campuses, the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, HCT, and the Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the HCT.

Mrs. Afaf Ibrahim Al Marri

Member of the Sharjah Executive Council

Mr. Saeed Sultan Al Suwaidi

Chairman of the Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority and BOT of the University Financial Resources Development Committee Chair

His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Alqasimi, Member of the Supreme Council, Ruler of Sharjah issued the Emiri Decree No. 37 of 2020 on 13 December 2020 of appointing H.E. Saeed Sultan Al Suwaidi chairman of the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority

Al Suwaidi has broad experience in the fields of administration, finance, procurement management and other administrative support services.

He assumed a number of leadership positions in public and private sectors and has had several achievements. He moved up in the career. He worked for the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority for 12 years. He started as an administrative supervisor and then he worked as director of procurement in 2005. On 21 October 2012, he was appointed deputy director-general for the support services sector at the General Authority for Regulating the Telecommunications Sector. The tasks of the support services sector include providing the Authority with the highest standard support services needed to carry out programs, initiatives and projects at the national level. The support services provided are instrumental to achieving the Authority's goals and include management, human resources, finance and corporate communication services.

Al Suwaidi was appointed chairman of the Sharjah Cooperative Society in 2007, a member of the board of directors of the Cooperative Union, a member of the board of trustees of the Information and Communication Technology Fund, in addition to the membership of a number of higher committees at the level of the country's federal government. In view of his fruitful efforts that resulted in achieving high earnings and remarkable development of services, he received several appreciation certificates and letters from His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council, Ruler of Sharjah.

Al Suwaidi obtained a bachelor degree in International Studies in 1999, the master degree in International Relations in 2000 from the American University in Washington D.C, USA. He also obtained a master degree in Strategic and Security Studies with all the rights and privileges thereto pertaining from the General Command of the Armed Forces – National Defense College (June 2017).

Dr. Khawla AlMulla

Member of the Sharjah Executive Council

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah

Dr. Khawla Al Mulla holds a PhD degree in Sociology, specific specialization: Policies and Development, University of Sharjah, a Master degree in Applied Sociology, Family Counselling and Social Work, University of Sharjah, and a Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Economics from the United Arab Emirates University. She also received a Graduate Diploma in Management from the united Arab Emirates University and the Diploma in Leadership from Zayed University.

Dr. Khawla continued education and received other diplomas in total quality management, small business cost accounting and strategic management.

She moved up in her career life from a schoolteacher to deputy principal to principal and then, an executive director at the Ministry of Education, Dubai.

She worked for the Supreme Council for Family Affairs and was the director of the Women Affairs Department, the director of the Family Counselling Department and the executive director of the Family Development Centers.

She was appointed Chair of the Consultative Council of Sharjah in its ninth consultative term. Currently, she is the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs.

Prof. Jacques Fremont

President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottawa – Canada

Jacques Frémont is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottawa. In 2013, Quebec's legislative assembly appointed him to chair the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission. Prior to this appointment, he worked at the Open Society Foundations, in New York, as Director of the International Higher Education Support Program.

Mr. Frémont was formerly at the University of Montreal, where he was Dean of the School of Law, as well as Provost and Vice-Rector (Academic Affairs) until 2010. He has also been a visiting professor at many Quebec, Canadian, European and Asian universities, and is the author of several books, articles and book chapters on constitutional law and public law. In 2012, he was named professor emeritus of the University of Montreal.

Throughout his career, Mr. Frémont has advised various international organizations on issues involving human rights, good governance and democracy, and has directed major international cooperation projects in the fields of human rights and judicial training. He has also been very active in higher education in Canada and abroad.

Mr. Frémont is a graduate of Laval University, in Quebec City, and pursued graduate studies at York University in Toronto. He has been awarded prizes and honours, including being named to the Order of the French Academic Palms in 2009 and receiving an honorary doctorate from Paul Cézanne University in Aix-en-Provence in 2010.

Prof Alexander Kuleshov

President of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), Moscow – Russia

Prof. Mohd. Hamdi Abd. Shukor

Vice Chancellor of University of Malaya, Malaysia

Prof. Tan Eng Chye

Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and Director of the Stanford Robotics Lab, Stanford University, The United States of America

President of the National University of Singapore, Singapore

Prof. Paul M O Byrne

Dean of the College of Health Sciences and Vice-President of McMaster University – Canada

Prof. Paul M. O’Byrne the Dean and Vice President of the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. His research interests focus on the mechanisms and treatment of asthma. His accolades include the James H. Graham Award of Merit of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada; election to the Royal Society of Canada; election to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences; and McMaster University’s top academic award, Distinguished University Professor.

Prof. Martin Barstow

Pro-Vice Chancellor Strategic Science Projects, Director of the Leicester Institute of Space & Earth Observation, Professor of Astrophysics and Space Science at the University of Leicester - United Kingdom

Martin Barstow joined the University of Leicester and the Department of Physics and Astronomy in 1979, following his undergraduate degree in physics at the University of York, to study for a PhD in X-ray Astronomy. Following his PhD he was detector scientist for the ROSAT Wide Field Camera and then won a Research Council Advanced Fellowship to exploit the data from that mission. He was appointed to a Lectureship in 1994, became Reader in 1998 and then Professor of Astrophysics and Space Science in 2003. He was head of the Physics and Astronomy department from 2005 to 2009 and Pro-Vice Chancellor and founding Head of the College of Science and Engineering from 2009 to 2016, before taking on the role of Pro-Vice Chancellor for strategic science projects and Director of the Leicester Institute of Space & Earth Observation, charged with developing Space Park Leicester. He has played a leading role in raising approximately £27M in external capital funding for the project, which opened in summer 2021. His current role is Director of Strategic Partnerships for Space Park Leicester.

Martin's research interests are the study of hot white dwarf stars and the surrounding interstellar medium. He has been involved in many space missions during his career, including NASA's Voyager probes, during their interplanetary cruises, the ESA EXOSAT mission, IUE, EUVE, Hubble and FUSE. He has had a 30+ year involvement with Hubble, initially as part of the team acquiring the first observations of white dwarfs with the telescope following up with many observing programmes in the intervening years. He was a member of the Space Telescope Users' Council during planning for the final Hubble servicing mission, which took place in May 2009. He leads the Leicester contribution to the ESA Gaia mission and has been a team member for the Large UVOIR telescope study, which will form the basis of the next NASA Flagship astronomy mission. During his scientific career, Martin has accumulated more than 500 publications, of which 236 are in refereed journals. with almost 22,000 citations. He has held more than £10M in research grants as PI and a further £14M as CoI.

In recent years, Martin has been fortunate to have had opportunities to play important roles in UK scientific funding and advisory structures, as a member of the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (2009-2015) and the Physics REF panel (2014 & 2021). He has also been a member of the ESA Astronomy Working Group (2012-2014) and Space Programme Advisory Committee of the United Kingdom Space Agency (2012-2015, Chair 2019-). In 2005, he was elected to the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society, becoming Astronomy Secretary in 2008 and President for two years from May 2014 to May 2016. Martin was closely involved in the development of the National Space Centre in Leicester and continues to support its educational programme. He has been chair of the Space Telescope Science Institute Council since 2016 and is a member of the board of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA).

Prof. Kamal Youcef-Toumi

Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Co-Director of the Center for Clean Water and Energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) –USA

Kamal Youcef-Toumi earned his advanced degrees (M.S. 1981 and Sc.D. 1985) in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. His undergraduate degree (B.S. in Mechanical Engineering awarded in 1979) is from the University of Cincinnati. He joined the MIT Mechanical Engineering Department faculty in 1986.

He is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He is also Co-Director of the Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM, and Director of the Mechatronics Research Laboratory (MIT).

Youcef-Toumi's research and teaching interests have focused on design, modeling, simulation, instrumentation, and automatic control systems. The applications have included manufacturing, robotics, automation, metrology and nano/biotechnology.

Youcef-Toumi served on many scientific and technical committees in the US and around the world. He has also served as a consultant and conducted research and development for many companies and government agencies. He is interested to use these experiences to contribute to several activities including (i) curriculum (content, teaching methods, and digital learning), (ii) hands-on students' experience, (iii) innovation & entrepreneurship ecosystem, (iv) research and development with industrial focus and sponsorships, and (v) partnerships for establishing leadership in selected areas.

Prof. Oussama Khatib

Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and Director of the Stanford Robotics Lab, Stanford University, The United States of America