Nidhal Guessoum
| Nidhal Guessoum | |
|---|---|
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| Born | September 6, 1960 |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | American University of Sharjah |
| Alma mater | University of California, San Diego |
| Thesis | Thermonuclear reactions of light nuclei in astrophysical plasmas (1988) |
Nidhal Guessoum M.Sc, P.hD. (born September 6, 1960) is an Algerian astrophysicist. He is a professor at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
His research interests range from gamma-ray astrophysics, such as positron-electron annihilation, nuclear gamma-ray lines, and gamma-ray bursts, to Islamic astronomy, i.e. crescent visibility, Islamic calendar, and prayer times at high latitudes, problems that have yet to be fully resolved. He has published a number of technical works and lectured internationally at many renowned universities (Cambridge, Oxford, Cornell, Wisconsin, and others).
In June 2003, he was awarded the 2nd Research Prize in Sciences, Engineering, and Architecture at his university.
In addition to his academic work, he writes about issues related to science, education, the Arab world, and Islam. Guessoum is also a columnist for Gulf News and The Huffington Post, and has made notable contributions to Nature Middle East. He has also appeared many times on international media outlets, including Al-Jazeera, BBC, NPR, France 2, Le Monde, and others. With a number of publications (including a notable book on the subject), he has recently become a prime scholar on the relations between Islam and modern science.
Prof. Guessoum attended Lycée Amara Rachid School in Algiers and went on to earn a B.Sc. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Science and Technology of Algiers in 1982. He then went to the United States for graduate studies. He earned M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, San Diego. His 1988 doctoral thesis, "Thermonuclear reactions of light nuclei in astrophysical plasmas", featured a recalculation of the rate of the fundamental reactions underlying the rate of energy production in the core of the Sun (in addition to neutrinos) as well as the rates of breakup reactions of light nuclei (protons and alphas particles on C, N, O, etc.) in various astrophysical environments, especially in accretion disks around compact objects suck as black holes and neutron stars, where this is accompanied by gamma-ray line emission.
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