Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Egyptian Professor Honored by Canadian University 


Sat 18 May 2019 | 04:20 PM
Gehan Aboella

A Canadian university honored on Saturday Dr. Abd El-Halim Omar, an Egyptian professor.

Carleton University expressed its gratitude for his career and outstanding performance over 40 years.

Omar, a member of ‘Egypt Can’ foundation, is a Professor of Transportation Engineering and Director of Infrastructure Protection and International Security at Carleton University.

On this occasion, the Canadian university has published an article on its official site, documenting his career. The article was under the title "Abd El Halim is Paving The Way To A Pothole-Free Future."

With his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Alexandria University, Halim went to Canada to complete his MSc at the University of Toronto in 1977.

He continued his career in civil engineering in Canada, trying to solve one major problem that persists to this day: potholes.

Instead of constantly patching and repaving after the coldest season, Halim wanted to invent a way to make pavement last for decades.

Omar invented Asphalt Multi-Integrated Roller (AMIR) machine, and he gave its acronym to his eldest son "Amir."

After completing his transportation PhD at the University of Waterloo in 1983, his supervisor Ralph Haas convinced him to stay in North America instead of returning to Egypt. In this year, the Egyptian professor joined Carleton as a researcher and professor.

Since 1987, he has been Director of the Centre for Geosynthetics Research Information and Development (C-GRID).

 He became Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 2003 until 2009, in addition, he is considered as an integral member of the Center for Advanced Asphalt Research and Technology.

Omar won fundraising and partnership of MTO to upgrade AMIR. It was developed in cooperation with Tomlinson Group, and a demonstration of the new "AMIR" will take place later in August. Production is set to begin later this year

https://research.carleton.ca/story/paving-the-way-to-a-pothole-free-future/

Contributed by: Mohamed Helba