By Noimot OlayiwolaThree distinguished faculty members at Qatar University have received the institution’s annual research awards for their outstanding research efforts.The winners, who were awarded during the QU’s research forum (QURF 2011) ‘Towards a Knowledge-Based Economy: Partnership to Meet National Challenges’ held yesterday, were first prize winner (QR25,000) Dr Hisham Eid of Civil Engineering department, anthropologist Dr Fadwa el-Guindi, the second place winner (QR15,000) and the third placed (QR10,000) Maths, Statistics and Physics department associate professor Dr Abouzeid Shalaby.Dr Eid, who received his PhD in 1996 from Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and was previously recognised as an international figure in the specialties of slope stability and shear strength of geomaterials, has done research with focus within four areas: shear strength measurement and behaviour of soil, solid waste and geosynthetics; slope stability; bearing capacity and settlement of shallow and deep foundations; and soil structure interaction.Apart from receiving a number of prestigious awards including the American Society of Engineers Thomas A Middlebrooks award for authoring a paper judged worthy of special commendation for its merit as a contribution to geotechnical engineering, Dr Eid has also received as a lead principal investigator over $1mn in external funding and results of his research have been published in well-known textbooks such as ‘Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice’ by Terzaghi, Peck and Mesri.Dr el-Guindi is a noted anthropologist, who has published widely and lectures internationally having earned her BA with honours in Political Science from American University in Cairo and her PhD in Anthropology from Texas University at Austin, US.Her extensive research focuses on culture and cognition and she has published over 80 research articles, seven authored books, 20 review articles and a dozen articles in popular press as well as three ethnographic films.Her more recent work on the Middle East has led to major research articles and two books namely: Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance and Noon Prayer: The Rhythm of Islam.A graduate of North Carolina State University, US, Dr Shalaby has a PhD in Particle Physics with a minor in mathematics as well as a master’s degree in Particle Physics and another master’s in High Energy Physics from Mansoura University, Egypt.He has written more than 15 articles many of which have been published in outstanding and highly ranked journals.Dr Shalaby has been awarded the 2008 National Award of Egypt in Physical Sciences and University of Qassim’s award of “Distinguished University Research Paper”, the Amen’s Lufty award and Misr El-Kheir publication award.Speaking earlier about the QURF 2011, QU president Prof Sheikha al-Misnad described the annual event as a celebration of activities and projects done by both faculty members and students of the institution.“Building capacity and educating are top priorities for QU as this is evidenced in our strategic plan that has research as a component and I must admit that transiting to a knowledge-based centre of learning is not a small feat as it requires human resources as well as several other important tools such as being highlighted by the General Secretariat for Development and Planning, the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy,” she noted. Prof al-Misnad stressed the importance of the Qatar National Research Fund for building national and regional co-operation to ensure progress of research in the country.“Collaboration between colleges, research centres, industries, governmental and non-governmental organisations, is very important in our quest for a knowledge-economy,” she said.Representatives of the three research institutes at the Qatar Foundation comprising Qatar Computing Research Institute, Qatar Energy and Environment Research Institute and Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, made a presentation about each institute.On the sidelines of the QURF 2011 was a poster competition by QU students and faculty in four broad research divisions, health (34 posters), ICT (29 posters), Energy and Environment (48 posters) and social science, business, law and humanities (26 posters).