Al Hashimi remembered
Society hosts commemoration for murdered Iraqi geologist Wissam Al-Hashimi.
Dr Wissam Al-Hashimi (1942-2004), one of Iraq’s leading geoscientists, did his PhD at the University of Newcastle (1968-1972) on the sedimentology and dolomitisation of Carboniferous limestones in Northumberland. He became President of the Geological Society of Iraq, and of the Union of Arab Geologists, as well as Vice-President of IUGS (1996-2002), when he was a key supporter of the proposal to establish the International Year of Planet Earth. This eventually won UN approval for 2008, and operated over a triennium that began with the balloon release in Burlington House that opened the Society’s bicentenary celebrations in 2007.
Picture: L-R: Prof. Eduardo de Mulder (IUGS, co-author); Balsam Wissam Al-Hashimi (daughter); Mrs Muatabar Hasan (widow); Mr David Shilston (President), and Farah Wissam Al-Hashimi (daughter). Photo: Ted Nield
However, Wissam Al-Hashimi never witnessed its success. On the morning of 24 August 2004 while going to work, Wissam was kidnapped, ransomed and - despite payment being made to his captors - brutally murdered. His ID was stolen and it was two weeks before his family were able to locate his body in one of Baghdad’s overstretched hospitals.
On 12 February, the Society welcomed members of Dr Al-Hashimi’s family to Burlington House where they were presented with copies of the volume Sustainable Development and Management of the Shallow Subsurface, dedicated to his memory by IUGS. The volume, published for IUGS by the Society, is currently out to review.
The lunch was hosted by David Shilston (President) and Alan Lord (Secretary, Foreign & External Affairs) and Eduardo de Mulder (former President, IUGS, Chair, IYPE and co-author of the volume), in the presence of Prof Mosa Almosawe (Iraqi Cultural Attaché), Dr Robert Hack (Unviersity of Twente, co-author), and members of Wissam’s family, including his widow Mrs Muatabar Hasan, his daughters Farah Wissam Al-Hashimi, Balsam Wissam Al-Hashimi, and several other family members and friends.
Dr Hack described the volume, while Dr Ed de Mulder (speaking on behalf of Roland Oberhänsli, current IUGS President) described Wissam’s life and work, and especially the debt owed to him by the geological community worldwide for IYPE.
Replying, Wissam Al-Hashimi’s widow, Mrs Muatabar Hassan, thanked the IUGS and the Geological Society for the book and the event. “Wissam was an honest and dedicated scientist who worked for his country in its darkest hour. His death came as a great loss to his family and the whole community, but he was a kind hearted person - we miss him a lot and still suffer. May his soul rest in peace. If he were still among us he would be so grateful for all that has been done for him by those who appreciate science.”