Salim T. S. Al-Hassani is Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering and currently an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester. He is President of the Foundation of Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC), [1] founder of the academic portal www.MuslimHeritage.com; [2] and Chief Editor of the 1001 Inventions [3] touring exhibition, built as a global education initiative which includes a book, [4] award winning film [5] and teacher’s pack.
Salim Al-Hassani was raised in Baghdad, but has lived, studied and worked in the UK since the early 1960s. He became Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1991 and was an acknowledged world expert in the decommissioning of offshore installations and in major plant-related accident investigations. He also researched into, and is widely published on, the computational modeling of biomedical processes. [6]
Since 1968, Professor Al-Hassani, has published over 200 papers in international journals and books. He has supervised 40 PhD students, 50 MSc students and numerous post-doctoral fellows from all parts of the world and holds patents on engineering. [7]
Over the past 25 years Al-Hassani’s interest has turned to promoting the cultural roots of science as a platform for community cohesion, intercultural appreciation and world peace. In order to do this, he has created a global movement aspiring to fill the 1000 years amnesia in our knowledge during the period commonly known as the Dark Ages, the Golden Age of the Muslim Civilisation, and to show their connectivity to present society. [8]
Now an Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the School of languages, Linguistics and Cultures, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester, [9] Al-Hassani’s work on the history of science and technology has earned him worldwide reputation. [10]
Al-Hassani established, and is Honorary President of, the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation, UK (FSTC Ltd). Through FSTC his work promoting the cultural roots of science, and especially that of the Muslim Civilisation, has spread across the globe with initiatives such as www.muslimheritage.com and the 1001 Inventions global education initiative and more recently the "1001 Cures" project on Medicine and Healthcare from Muslim Civilisation out of which a major work, edited by Prof. Peter Pormann, was launched at the Royal Society, in March 2018. [11]
He made his mark by utilising applied modern engineering analysis to recreate, in virtual 3D space, ancient machines, especially those invented during the Golden Age such as the machines of Al-Jazari and Taqi al-Din. [12] [13]
Al-Hassani has authored and edited more than 300 publications on Muslim Heritage, including the book 1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilisation(Published by National Geographic with a forward from HRH Prince Charles). [14] This book is considered to be essential reading for all those interested to learn about the role of Muslim inventions in today’s schools, universities, homes, hospitals, markets, cities, world and universe. [15] This has recently been updated as a text only annotated edition as an eBook. [16]
Al-Hassani is a speaker on the Muslim contribution to building the foundations of modern civilisation delivering more than 150 lectures at national and international venues. These include a keynote speech entitled Learning from the Past to Design the Future [17] delivered at the Intellectual Capital Conference organized by the World Bank in Paris ; 1000 years Amnesia and the Identity Crisis [18] at the UK Parliament in London, Muslim Heritage and Education [19] presented to the Education and Culture Committee of the EU Parliament in Brussels on 5 November 2008 and Strategic Importance of Muslim Heritage in our World and its Impact on Diplomatic, Educational and Socio-Economic Developments given at the exhibition on Multi-Faith Scientists in Islamic Civilization [20] organized by the FSTC at the United Nations, New York, 12–14 November 2008. [20]
These initiatives have been successful in promoting greater cohesion, respect and understanding between faiths and cultures. Their major value is not only in closing the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK and worldwide, but also in promoting the concept of scientific and technological innovation as a positive and constructive channel for the personal expression of belief, as an alternative to religious isolationism and extremism and more particularly in facilitating greater understanding of the past positive role of Muslim women in society with particular emphasis on their participation in science, technology, art and culture. Furthermore, it reveals a past when Muslims, Christians, Jews, Sabians and others worked closely together and in harmony to develop society. [8] [21] [22]
In 2001, Professor Salim T S Al-Hassani received the Fazlur Rahman Khan award for excellence in engineering, science and technology. [23]
In September 2009, Professor Salim T S Al-Hassani was granted an Honorary Fellowship of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, now the British Science Association for his work to promote the scientific and technological achievements within Muslim cultures. The Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association is a distinguished honour, conferred to date on about 90 people.[ citation needed ]
In February 2009, Professor Salim T S Al-Hassani was presented the Building Bridges Award by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. [23]
During the last ten years, [24] he was named, each year, amongst the 500 most influential Muslims (Science and Technology) in the world. [25]
Dean Lawrence Kamen is an American engineer, inventor, and businessman. He is known for his invention of the Segway and iBOT, as well as founding the non-profit organization FIRST with Woodie Flowers. Kamen holds over 1,000 patents.
Hydraulics is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concerns gases. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the applied engineering using the properties of fluids. In its fluid power applications, hydraulics is used for the generation, control, and transmission of power by the use of pressurized liquids. Hydraulic topics range through some parts of science and most of engineering modules, and cover concepts such as pipe flow, dam design, fluidics and fluid control circuitry. The principles of hydraulics are in use naturally in the human body within the vascular system and erectile tissue. Free surface hydraulics is the branch of hydraulics dealing with free surface flow, such as occurring in rivers, canals, lakes, estuaries and seas. Its sub-field open-channel flow studies the flow in open channels.
Badīʿ az-Zaman Abu l-ʿIzz ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ar-Razāz al-Jazarī was a polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer, artisan, artist and mathematician from the Artuqid Dynasty of Jazira in Mesopotamia. He is best known for writing The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206, where he described 50 mechanical devices, along with instructions on how to construct them. He is credited with the invention of the elephant clock. He has been described as the "father of robotics" and modern day engineering.
Robert Melancton Metcalfe is an engineer and entrepreneur from the United States who helped pioneer the Internet starting in 1970. He co-invented Ethernet, co-founded 3Com and formulated Metcalfe's law, which describes the effect of a telecommunications network. Since January 2011, he has been Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at The University of Texas at Austin. He is also the Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise.
The House of Wisdom, also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, refers to either a major Abbasid public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad or to a large private library belonging to the Abbasid caliphs during the Islamic Golden Age. The House of Wisdom was founded either as a library for the collections of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the late 8th century or was a private collection created by al-Mansur to house rare books and collections of poetry in Arabic.
Robert Maurice Lipson Winston, Baron Winston, is a British professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and Labour peer.
Abū Marwān ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr, traditionally known by his Latinized name Avenzoar, was an Arab physician, surgeon, and poet. He was born at Seville in medieval Andalusia, was a contemporary of Averroes and Ibn Tufail, and was the most well-regarded physician of his era. He was particularly known for his emphasis on a more rational, empiric basis of medicine. His major work, Al-Taysīr fil-Mudāwāt wal-Tadbīr, was translated into Latin and Hebrew and was influential to the progress of surgery. He also improved surgical and medical knowledge by keying out several diseases and their treatments.
Abu al-Qasim Abbas ibn Firnas ibn Wirdas al-Takurini, also known as Abbas ibn Firnas, Latinized Armen Firman, was a Berber Andalusian polymath: an inventor, astronomer, physician, chemist, engineer, Andalusi musician, and Arabic-language poet. He was reported to have experimented with a form of flight.
Bertram Vivian Bowden, Baron Bowden was an English scientist and educationist, particularly associated with the development of UMIST as a successful university.
Bettany Mary Hughes is an English historian, author and broadcaster, specialising in classical history. Her published books cover classical antiquity and myth, and the history of Istanbul. She is active in efforts to encourage the teaching of the classics in UK state schools. Hughes was appointed OBE in 2019.
Jameel Sadik "Jim" Al-Khalili is an Iraqi-British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey. He is a regular broadcaster and presenter of science programmes on BBC radio and television, and a frequent commentator about science in other British media.
The elephant clock was a model of water clock invented by the medieval Islamic engineer Ismail al-Jazari (1136–1206). Its design was detailed in his book, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.
Nasuh bin Karagöz bin Abdullah el-Visokavi el-Bosnavî, commonly known as Matrakçı Nasuh for his competence in the combat sport of Matrak which was invented by himself, was a 16th-century Turk-Bosniak statesman of the Ottoman Empire, polymath, mathematician, teacher, historian, geographer, cartographer, swordmaster, navigator, inventor, painter, farmer, and miniaturist.
Prof. Narinder Kumar Gupta, known as Prof. N. K. Gupta or Prof Narinder Gupta is a research scientist, educator, and engineer. Born 22 August 1942 in Mirpur, Jammu and Kashmir, India, is Professor of Mechanics at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. Gupta works in the area of large deformations of metals and composites at low, medium and high rates of loading. His research stimulates the development of constitutive behaviour of materials, understanding of the basic mechanics of large deformation, design for crashworthiness of road and air vehicles, design for safety in defence applications and in design of metal forming processes.
Sulaimān at-Tājir was a 9th-century Muslim merchant, traveler and writer initially from Siraf in modern-day Iran. He traveled to India, Bengal and China and wrote an account of his voyages around AD 850. He is mostly known for his travel to Guangzhou, Tang China, and marveled at the excellent quality of porcelain there in 851.
Ahmed Salim is a British social entrepreneur and producer of transmedia productions including films, international exhibitions, live shows, books and educational and social campaigns that have engaged more than 400 million people around the world. Ahmed Salim is on The 500 Most Influential Muslims lists of 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Danielle Amanda George is a Professor of Radio frequency engineering in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) and Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning at the University of Manchester in the UK. George became the 139th President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in October 2020.
Al-ʻIjliyyah bint al-ʻIjliyy was a 10th-century maker of astrolabes active in Aleppo, in what is now northern Syria.
David Adetayo Olusoga is a British historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and film-maker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. He has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contributed to The One Show and The Guardian.
Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Bāqī al-Baghdadi al-Ansārī al-Kaabī (1050-1141) also known as Qadi al-Maristan, was an Arab jurist and mathematician.
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