28/10/2007

Winners of An-Najah Research Prize were announced today in the Deanship of Scientific Research. The prize, which consists of an award of $5000, is aimed to encourage Arab scientists to undertake purposeful researches.
This year's winners: Dr. Sami Jaber, the Dean of Scientific Research, and Dr. Muhammad Abu Safat from The Department of Geography at the University were awarded the prize at a ceremony which was attended by the University President, Dr. Rami Hamdallah, the Dean of Scientific Research, and university staff members. Dr. Hamdallah presented a certificate of acknowledgment, university plaque to each winner, and a $5000 check, which will be shared by the two researchers.
In his speech on this occasion, Dr. Hamdallah emphasized the importance of scientific research in the development of human societies and thanked the Deanship of Scientific Research for their contribution in this field.
The Dean of Scientific Research gave a speech in which he praised the University for its ongoing efforts to enhance scientific research, and thanked the Chairman of the
Board of Trustees, Dr Salah Al-Masri, members of the Board, University President, and all researchers for their efforts to improve the university.
Dr. Jaber has won the prize for his research in theoretical physics entitled, “Planc’s Law of Radiation Distribution in a Multi-dimensional Space.” In this research, Planc's law has been derived, a number of equations that have to do with this law, as well as the effect that the number of space dimensions has on physical quantities have been found and solved. For instances, Wien`s equation, which gives the value of the wavelength at which the radiation density reaches its highest value, and an equation which demonstrates the relationship between the density of radiation power and temperature in a multidimensional space have been found.
Dr. Muhammad Abu Safat presented work entitled: “The Geochemical Classification of Soils in the North of the West Bank.” The research is focused on the classification of the soils of the North of the West Bank on the basis of their content of carbons, argillaceous and organic materials, the amount of metallic materials necessary to the soil, such as sodium, magnesium, and calcium, as well as heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, zinc and copper, that are harmful to plants, water, and humans alike, and the value of pH for its influence on the cation exchange capacity of soils.
Soil samples were taken from various areas and analyzed. Their results can be generalized to other areas that have similar properties as the tested ones, in terms of geology, topography, plant cover and land uses. In the cartographic classification of soil, the German classification system was used. According to this system, the soil is divided based on its components and properties, into categories that can be represented on maps. The soil maps show the distribution of soils in the West Bank according to where they were formed and their content of organic materials and carbon. Taking all these factors into account, the soils were classified into the following categories: very good, good, medium, poor and very poor.