Distinguished Award Recipients

2026 Cycle

Sultan Barakat is a Professor at the College of Public Policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He is a renowned scholar in the study of war-torn societies and their recovery. He has supervised over 20 PhDs in politics and post-war recovery and graduated a generation of MA peacebuilders and reconstruction specialists. Professor Barakat founded and directed the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute from 2016 to 2022 and previously led the post-war reconstruction unit at the University of York from 1993 to 2019.

He has published extensively, with recent books including Russia’s Approach to Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Shelter and Reconstruction after War and Disaster, both released in 2023. With over 30 years of experience, Barakat has worked on conflict management, humanitarian response, and post-conflict recovery, influencing global practices through his publications and advisory roles with organizations like the UN, World Bank, and EU.

He has led evaluations and peace initiatives in various conflict zones, demonstrating his commitment to stability and resilience. His involvement in mediation efforts in Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan highlights his contributions to peacebuilding. Barakat continues to shape discourse in conflict resolution, earning recognition as a leading authority in the field.

2026 Cycle

Dr. Haitham Abu-Rub is a Professor at the College of Science and Engineering. He has research and teaching experience at many universities in several countries, including Qatar, Poland, Palestine, USA, and Germany. He served for five years as the Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Program at Texas A&M University at Qatar and for ten years as the Managing Director of the Smart Grid Center at the same university.

Dr. Abu-Rub is the recipient of many national and international awards and recognitions, including the Fulbright and Alexander von Humboldt scholarships. His research group includes many PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. He is also a Fellow of IEEE and Co-Editor in Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

He has published over 600 journal and conference papers, three patents, eight books, and eight book chapters, and has offered numerous keynote speeches at many conferences, training courses for industry engineers, and special courses for students.

2025 Cycle

Dr. McKay has almost 40 years of experience in academia and industry. He is presently a professor of Sustainable Development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Before this, he was a Full Professor and Head of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). During his time in Hong Kong, he was Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Discipline of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers.

Prior to joining HKUST in 1995, he spent 10 years in the industry. He established his own company, Consultancy Process Engineering and Management Systems, and this company was subcontracted to Project Management (PM) Ltd (Foster Wheeler Ireland), which employs over 600 staff and is Ireland's largest process engineering design company. He was the Senior Process Specialist, specializing in process plant design, environmental impact assessment and process plant safety. From 1971 to 1987, Dr. McKay was a Reader in the Chemical Engineering Department at Queen’s University, Belfast, and he was a Training Consultant to the BP Oil Refinery in Northern Ireland. During this period in 1983 - 1984, he was appointed as Project Manager for a European Commission Technical Assistance project at the University of Jordan. He has over 1000 publications, over 600 in international refereed journals, and has authored twelve books about energy, environment, and process design. He co-authored the second most cited paper (15,000 cites to date) ever in the SCI Chemical Engineering sector and has a Scopus h-index of 101 and a Google Scholar h-index of 116.

2024 Cycle

Prof. Amine Bermak is the founding head of the Information and Computing Technology (ICT) division of the College of Science and Engineering (CSE). Prof. Bermak was instrumental in building the B.Sc. in Computer Engineering, the M.Sc. in Cybersecurity, the M.Sc. in Data Science and Engineering, and the Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering programs. The development of these programs involved major groundwork related to drafting the initial proposals, market analysis, and ministerial approval for the programs.

During his tenure as acting associate provost, he worked on multiple founding initiatives for the university, such as establishing formal policies, processes, and committees for curriculum development, drafting the faculty handbook, and drafting major policies and procedures such as the HBKU promotion policy. Professor Bermak was the chair and founder of multiple university committees, such as the founder and chair of the University Academic Programs and Studies Committee (UAPSC). This committee constitutes the backbone for handling curriculum development within the whole University at a very early stage of development of HBKU. Prof. Bermak was also the chair of the University Senate task force.

For his outstanding service to the profession, Prof. Bermak has been recognized with multiple awards. Prof. Bermak is a Fellow of IEEE (only 3% of all 400,000 IEEE members are recognized with this honor), a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association AAIA, IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, and a Chair of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Committee on Sensory Systems. He was recently nominated by Her Excellency Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, QF Vice Chairperson and CEO, to join the National Committee for Artificial Intelligence representing Qatar Foundation.