Dr. Zaher Dawy Appointed as Provost and Dr. Lina Choueiri as Deputy Provost at AUB

President of the American University of Beirut (AUB), Dr. Fadlo Khuri, issued a message in which he announced the appointment of Dr. Zaher Dawy as provost of the university effective July 15, 2021. “Dr. Dawy emerged as the lead candidate in an international search led by Board Chair Philip Khoury and Trustee Huda Zoghbi, the vice chairperson for academic affairs. My sincerest thanks extend to the Provost Search Committee for their commitment to the success of this process since it began last October,” Khuri said.
 
“Dr. Dawy’s strategic acumen, out-of-the-box thinking, in conjunction with his deep knowledge of the inner workings of AUB and steadfast commitment to excellence and to the core values of liberal education, make him the ideal candidate to lead our academic mission through these extraordinary times and secure AUB’s continued and future success,” Khuri added.
 
Dr. Dawy joined AUB in 2004 and is a tenured professor of electrical and computer engineering at AUB’s Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (MSFEA) with research interests in wireless networks, internet of things, and biomedical engineering. He is a widely published scholar who has made significant research contributions and maintained extramural funding for his lab at MSFEA. Dr. Dawy is also an exceptional administrator with a wealth of experience, whose recent service at AUB includes roles as associate provost (since 2017), interim provost (July-December 2020), chair of the Graduate Council (since 2017), chair of the University Research Board (2015-2020), founding coordinator of the joint MSFEA/FM(Faculty of Medicine) Biomedical Engineering Program (2015-2020), and co-founder of the joint FHS(Faculty of Health Sciences)/MSFEA Humanitarian Engineering Initiative (since 2017). He has also played a key role in the restoration of tenure at AUB. An alumnus of AUB (BE ’98), Dr. Dawy earned his doctorate in communications engineering at the Munich University of Technology.
“As AUB’s chief academic officer, Dr. Dawy will have broad oversight of the many dimensions of academic life across the university. He will also lead the restructuring of the Office of the Provost, developing key strategic initiatives and aligning resources to advance AUB’s educational and research mission in Lebanon, the region, and the Global South,” Khuri said.
 
He added that “the first milestone in this restructuring is the appointment of Dr. Lina Choueiri as AUB’s first deputy provost, effective July 15, 2021. Dr. Choueiri will spearhead major projects focusing on global partnerships, faculty advancement, and reimagining AUB’s educational experience.”

Dr. Choueiri joined AUB in 2000 and is a tenured professor of linguistics at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, specializing in comparative syntax with a focus on the Arabic language and its dialects. She graduated from AUB with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics (BS ‘89) and holds a License ès Lettres in French literature from Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut. She earned her doctorate in linguistics at the University of Southern California. Dr. Choueiri has served as interim provost since January 2021, and prior to that as associate provost since 2017.