Month: July 2020

World’s 3rd Longest Driverless Metro Network : Dubai Metro, UAE

In 2009, when it opened Dubai Metro topped the list as the ‘Worlds Longest Automated Rail System’

Presently, it’s moved down after Vancouver’s Sky Train and Singapore.

The longest driverless metroline is the Dubai Metro Red Line which is 52.1 km in length. The second line, Green Line is 22.5 km which when combined with the Red Line will make it longer than the Vancouver Sky Train.

Dubai Metro is owned by Roads an Transport Authority (RTA), Dubai.

Image Credit: Gulf News Archive / gulfnews.com

____________________________________

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Mohammad Burbayea : World Jet Ski Champion : Kuwait

Mohammad Burbayea, Jet Ski racer, has the most IJSBA World Championship wins (male) by an individual : 22 , achieved by between 2007 and 2018.

Burbayea has won over 28 titles including 15 World Championships with 12 consequtive wins.

IJSBA : International Jet Sports Boating Association

pix : jetski-worldseries.com

_________

Kuwait

World’s Largest Hot Desert . The Sahara Desert, North Africa

The Sahara in North Africa is the largest hot desert in the world.

At its greatest length it is 5,150 km (3,200 miles) from east to west. From north to south it is between 1,280 and 2,250 km (800 and 1,400 miles).

The area covered by the desert is about 9.1 million km (9,100,000 sq km/ 3.5 million square miles).

______________________________________________________________

(Algeria, Egypt, Libya,Morocco, Sudan,Tunisia), North Africa

World’s Largest Hand-Woven Carpet – Abu Dhabi, UAE

The largest hand-woven carpet sits in Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

The massive Persian carpet was created in 9 parts and assembled inside the mosque. It took 1,200 weavers from the Khorasan province about one year to hand craft. The carpet features 2.2 billion hand-tied individual rug knots, weighs 12 tons and is 5,360 square meters (60,000.81 sq. feet) . It was manufactured in Iran in 2007.

Record by the Guiness World Records

___________________________________

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Hicham El Guerroj – World’s Fastest Run 1,500m : Morocco July 1998

Hicham El Guerrouj won the 1,500 metres event at IAAF Golden League Golden Gala in Rome, Italy, in a time of 3 minutes 26 seconds on 14 July 1998.

He beat the existing record by more than a second.

El Guerrouj also retained 4 other world record times:

over one mile (indoors and outdoors) 2,000 metres (outdoors) and 1,500 metres (indoors) as on 2017

Record: Guinness World Record

__________

Morocco

Rakhia Ismail, First British-Somali female Mayor : May 2019

Councillor Rakhia Mohammed Ismail , the first hijab wearing female Mayor of Islington, North London.

Achievements:

  • First elected to Islington Council – 2012
  • Deputy Mayor – 2018
  • Founder : ‘Back 2 Basics Create’ – an NGO charity supporting hard to reach women and mothers
  • First muslim and BAME cabinet member in Islington
  • Founding member – Islington Stand Up Racism

________________________

British / Somali-British

Omar M. Yaghi – The Alchemist. Winner numerous Int’l Awards for Chemistry

American Omar Mwannes Yaghi, the second most cited chemist in the world.

Elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences

Present Assignment:

  • James & Neeltje Tretter Chair, Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley

Education:

  • BS – Chemistry – Cum Laude – State University of New York-Albany, New York (1983-85)
  • PhD – Chemistry – Best Thesis Award – University of Illinois, Urbania-Champaign (1986-90)
  • NSF Post Doctoral Fellow – Harvard University (1990-92)

Director:

  • Founding Director – Berkeley Global Science Institute
  • Co-Director – Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute
  • Co-Director – California Research Alliance by BASF

Awards / Honours :

  • Solid State Chemistry Award of the American Chemical Society and Exxon Co (1998)
  • Sacconi Medal of the Italian Chemical Society (2004)
  • US Department of Energy Hydrogen Program Award (2007)
  • Materials Research Society  
  • Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science  
  • American Chemical Society Chemistry of Materials Award (2009)
  • Izatt-Christensen International Award (2009)
  • Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize (2010)
  • China Nano Award (2013)
  • King Faisal International Prize in Chemistry (2015)
  • Mustafa Prize in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (2015)\
  • TÜBA Academy Prize in Basic and Engineering Sciences for establishing Reticular Chemistry (2016)
  • Spiers Memorial Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (2017)
  • Medal of Excellence of the First Order bestowed by King Abdullah II (2017)
  • Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry International Award(2017)
  • Bailar Medal in Inorganic Chemistry (2017)
  • Kuwait Prize in Fundamental Sciences (2017)
  • Albert Einstein World Award of Science conferred by the World Cultural Council (2017)
  • BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences for pioneering Reticular Chemistry (2018)
  • Wolf Prize in Chemistry in which he was cited for pioneering reticular chemistry via metal-organic frameworks and covalent organic frameworks (2018)
  •  His work on water harvesting from desert air using metal-organic frameworks  was showcased by the World Economic Forum in Switzerland as one of the top 10 emerging technologies
  • Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (2018)
  • Eni Award in recognition of his work in applying framework chemistry to clean energy solutions including methane storage, carbon dioxide capture and conversion, and water harvesting from desert air (2018)
  • Gregori Aminoff Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the development of reticular chemistry (2019)
  • MBR Medal for Scientific Excellence of the United Arab Emirates (2019)
  • Nano Research Award (2019)
  • August-Wilhelm-von-Hofmann-Denkmunze gold medal of the German Chemical Society for his contribution to reticular chemistry and for pioneering MOFs, COFs, and molecular weaving (2020)
  • Royal Society of Chemistry Sustainable Water Award for his impactful development of water harvesting from desert air using metal–organic frameworks(2020)

Books/ Publications / Papers :

  • Several books published. Many papers presented

_______________________________________________

American / Palestine-Jordan / Arab-American