Born in Kut, Iraq, Dr. Azzam Alwash received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1988. After the removal of Saddam Hussein, he returned to Iraq to work on the restoration of the marshes. He is the founder of Nature Iraq, whose focus is the preservation of the environment and cultural heritage of Iraq. He has been the recipient of the Takreem Award and The Goldman Environmental Prize. In 2013, he was selected as one of the 100 forward thinking leaders of the world by the Foreign Policy Group. In 2006, he became a founding member of the board of trustees of the American University of Iraq – Sulaimani. The university’s mission is to build the future leadership of Iraq and the region through the use of the liberal arts model. Students engage in honest discussion about the modern and ancient history of the region alongside a rigorous scientific curriculum, and are encouraged to work actively to raise funds and to build the infrastructure and educational faculty. The first graduating class was in 2011 and the university now has some 1400 students with plans to expand to student population of 5000. Dr. Alwash continues to work on environmental issues, suggesting that water can be an instrument of peace rather than the source of tension in the future Middle East.
