Director of the Division of University Interdisciplinary Programs at the American University of Beirut (AUB)

Dr. Ghaddar is the Qatar Chair in Energy Studies Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the founding Director of the Division of University Interdisciplinary Programs at the American University of Beirut (AUB). She is also the Director of the Munib and Angela Masri Institute of Energy and Natural Resources. She joined AUB in 1991, and subsequently served as Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department from 2001 to 2007, and the coordinator of the Chemical Engineering Program, and the Associate Provost from 2008 to 2015. Dr. Ghaddar has been instrumental in development of specialized educational graduate programs and labs in applied energy, energy studies as well as an online green technologies professional diploma at AUB.

Dr. Ghaddar primary research focus is in efficient cooling/heating, modeling and optimization of energy systems, energy conversion, heat and moisture transport processes in clothing, bioheat modeling, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and personalized ventilators. Recent work in thermal comfort has addressed an integrated approach to experimentally testing and modeling of a clothed-human body heat and mass transport processes and their interaction with their indoor and outdoor environment. She has published more than 170 technical papers of which 110 papers in peer reviewed journals. She is serving on a number of editorial boards of technical journals. She has recently received the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers (Green Engineering) for 2013. Dr. Ghaddar is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Islamic World Academy of Sciences; and the Lebanese Academy of Science. In 2014 she was listed by Muslim Science among the top-20 Most Influential Women in Science in the Islamic World describes as the Shaper of Energy Future, Kuwait and Lebanon.

Dr. Ghaddar obtained a Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Kuwait University. She received both her Master’s and doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.