The Faculty of Information Technology at An-Najah University organized a scientific seminar at the New Campus Library for Professor Isam Shahrour, Vice President at the University of Science and Technology of Lille-1. The seminar was titled “Knowledge Community, Economical Development Challenges and Opportunities and the Role of Higher Education Institutions and Research Centers “. Attendees included Dr. Ra’ed Al-Qadi, Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology, a number of the faculty staff and students.

At the beginning of the seminar, Dr. Al-Qadi welcomed Professor Shahrour and valued his interest to visit An-Najah and deliver a lecture to its students and staff, describing him as an example of a successful Palestinian individual on the international level.

In his lecture, Professor Shahrour spoke about a number of urban issues from all over the world. One of these issues was the impact of the knowledge community on social and economical development, the infrastructure in the world’s biggest cities, and the risks that might result from the smallest errors that could occur such as power outages, explaining that such outage in major countries as in the USA could inflict losses estimated at billions of dollars.

Additionally, Professor Shahrour discussed issues of the environment and energy resources and said that electronic appliances that humans use in their daily life emit carbon dioxide; therefore, it is necessary to make sure that electronic products are environmentally friendly. This also includes the nuclear power which poses a great threat to humanity. He called for the use of alternative energy resources and to dedicate efforts to protect the environment and preserve natural resources.

Moreover, he discussed the issue of globalization, the global free trade market, the challenges the are imposed on economical development, the challenges and opportunities facing the knowledge community, its role in higher education, scientific research and economical knowledge, in addition to issues of natural production, the use of nutrients and fertilizers.

Shahrour is a professor of Civil and Urban Engineering at the University of Science and Technology of Lille. Since 1984, he became a faculty member at the University of Science and Technology of Lille and currently he is the Vice President “Research, Valorization and Doctoral Program” at Lille 1 University, the President of the Innovation Agency “Lille Metropole Technopole” for the Local and Regional Economic Development through innovation, and the President of the Innovation Agency “Contactless Technology” for the promotion and the use of contactless technology in economic and social development in the North of France.

In addition to these posts, he is assumes the Direction of the Civil and Geo-environmental Engineering Research Laboratory and the Direction of the International Master Program “Urban Engineering and Habitat”.

His research activity concerns the fields of numerical and physical modeling in Geotechnical and Environmental Engineering, sustainable management of natural resources and more recently Smart Systems in Urban Engineering.

Furthermore, Professor Shahrour has conducted an intensive research activity with a strong industrial partnership, has issued 100 refereed journal papers, presented 200 papers in national and international conferences, has supervised around 55 PhD dissertations and assumed various editorial responsibilities in national and international journals. He also conducts regular reviewing for about 15 international academic and professional journals.