Behind the great success stories are unknown soldiers. Without their dedication, perseverance, and passion for their work, the work that draws the spotlight to the story’s hero would not have been completed. These people remain behind the curtain, happy with the support of more heroes.
Some heroes are chivalrous and grateful, acknowledging the merits of these soldiers, without whom the work would not have come to light. Among them was the young Gazan Anas Al-Qanou’, a PhD researcher at the Malaysian University of Science, whose story became the talk of the world after he discussed his PhD thesis remotely from inside his semi-demolished home in the Gaza Strip, which had been damaged by Israeli bombardment.
While expressing his happiness that his story has become a title for steadfastness and challenge, Al-Qanou did not forget to mention the merit of his professor and supervisor at the university, the Iraqi professor Nasser Al-Rawi, to draw our attention to this Arab scholar, nicknamed at the university as the “godfather of Arab students”, to discover after reviewing Record it The research, which in 2024 alone, has not yet ended, includes 22 research studies published in prestigious scientific journals.
We sent him a request to conduct the interview, via his personal page on Facebook, and he did not hesitate to agree, expressing his readiness to answer any questions. These were the details of the interview that lasted for a full hour via the Zoom application.
First: Can you give me a brief summary of your research career?
I obtained my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Baghdad, the first from Al-Mustansiriya University, and the second from the University of Technology. I then joined one of the military manufacturing research centers, and my specialization was in laser manufacturing, and I learned a lot during that period.
But with the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war, and the subsequent deterioration in living conditions, I moved to Libya, and worked there for 5 years at Nasser University, and one of the higher teachers’ institutes.
After that, I thought about traveling to Malaysia to complete my postgraduate studies. In 2006, I obtained my PhD from the University of Science Malaysia. It was about improving lighting using nanotechnology. After my PhD, I moved to northern Malaysia, specifically the University of Perlis, where I stayed for 3 years before I got the opportunity to work again at the university from which I had obtained my PhD. I stayed there for 23 years, working as an associate professor in the Department of Physics.
Recently I returned to Iraq to work as the Head of the Laser and Optoelectronics Engineering Department at Dijlah University.
But you are talking to me now from Malaysia, do you work between Dijlah University and University of Science Malaysia?
I currently work between the two universities, as I still supervise 14 PhD students at the University of Science Malaysia. More than 35 PhD students and more than 40 Master’s students have graduated under my supervision, which is a scientific activity that I am very proud of, in addition to my other activities that include 11 scientific books in Arabic and English, and a series of books that I am currently working on on the manufacture of nanodevices. I have 3 patents, and I publish abundant research ranging between 20 and 40 research papers per year.
Prolific research output
In fact, your extensive research publication was such a striking thing when preparing for the interview that for a while I feared that you were dealing with a “research paper mill”?
(After a loud laugh) Of course, the research paper production offices, which some call “research paper production factories,” have become a threat to scientific research, and the abundant scientific production of any researcher may raise doubts about dealing with these offices, especially when the publication in one year reaches, as happened to me, 80 research papers.
But in my case, the reasons for the abundant publication are known. I accept to supervise many Arab master’s and doctoral students who come to the Malaysian University of Science. I do not differentiate between a good student and a bad one, as others do, because I have the ability to teach students and extract the best from them. Therefore, my name is published in the research published from my students’ master’s and doctoral theses.
Also, when I supervise undergraduate students in their graduation projects, I make sure to publish the research for this project. In addition, I have relationships with many research teams around the world, and I work with them on joint research projects, from which research is published. For all these reasons, I have published a large amount of research.
Would the university accept all Arab students to register with you?
Most of my students are Arabs, but I also supervise students from Africa, Pakistan, China and other countries. The truth is that the university was responsive to the request of any Arab student who wanted to register with me, and I, by nature, did not refuse.
So you are a friend of Arab students?
(After a broad smile appeared on his face) They call me there the “godfather of Arab students.” My relationship with my students is not limited to the boundaries of the lab and the university. I spend long hours with them outside the lab, discussing and exchanging ideas that we transform the next day into a research product.
Great mindset without direction
What is your objective assessment of the Arab student’s mentality?
Arab students are geniuses and have a quick readiness to learn and develop, but unfortunately they lack guidance. I will not hide from you a secret that a not insignificant percentage, when I first dealt with them, discovered a severe weakness in the scientific material and a lack of the basics, a situation that did not exist in the past, when the levels were much better.
But the positive thing is that these students are quick to learn when they find someone to guide them, and I have a recent story that confirms this. I make sure that each of my students gives a presentation every two weeks.
Once, I evaluated a student’s presentation as being very bad and completely invalid, so I asked him to prepare himself to re-present himself in a week, after I gave him some instructions. He called me a week later asking for another extension, and he came back two weeks later and gave a wonderful presentation. My evaluation of him was that he got a 90% grade. So the problem was not in this student’s abilities, but rather in his lack of someone to guide and teach him.
And don’t tell me that the student is no longer willing to learn, I have another experience, when I wrote a few months ago on my Facebook page, calling on researchers to join an initiative I launched under the title (100 research papers per year), two high school students from Iraq and Jordan sent me a message asking to join that initiative, as the desire to learn exists even at this young age, so the problem is in the absence of a teacher who is willing to teach and guide.
Who made this professor disappear?
In my opinion, the emergence of private universities is what led to this setback, as profit has become the dominant factor in the educational process. The student is not qualified to study the specialty, but because he has the financial compensation, he can study the specialty he wants, and the professor does not have time to work with an unqualified student. However, through my experience, you can create a success story with this student, as my personal experience reveals through guiding and teaching him, because the total score in the secondary school certificate sometimes does not express capabilities.
I advise every professor to connect students early on to scientific communication platforms. I directed my undergraduate students at Dijlah University to join these platforms such as “Research Gate” and “Google Scholar,” and I give them grades for that. This is the first step to broadening the student’s horizons by drawing his attention to a way of communication that serves his professional path instead of social communication, where he spends a long time.
Don’t forget that we met on social media?
(Laughing) I do not deny its importance in getting to know each other and promoting research, but what saddens me is the excessive use, to the point that our children spend the night moving from one video to another on the TikTok website, and this is a very harmful behavior that will carry with it during the different age stages, so that he will then find it difficult to enjoy other platforms that benefit him professionally, such as scientific communication platforms.
Iraq’s Reclaiming of Its Research Past
Allow me to move the conversation to another area, which is your assessment of the state of scientific research in Iraq, where your country was on the path of a major research renaissance, then it declined due to the war with Iran and the American war. Is it able to return?
There is no difficulty in returning when the capabilities are available, as evidenced by the fact that despite the difficult circumstances, there is noticeable research activity in Iraq, by researchers who rely on locally manufactured devices, and they reach good results. However, if you are looking for a major leap, you need advanced devices that you provide with millions of dollars, and spend millions more on them for maintenance. I clearly noticed the big difference in capabilities during a recent visit to a Chinese university, where the physics department had 6 devices of one type, while there is only one device of this type in all Iraqi universities combined.
Why did you return to Iraq despite the weak capabilities?
I have reached retirement age in Malaysia (60 years), however, the Malaysian University of Science has given me two additional years, and I am still supervising my students, in addition to my work at Dajla University. After completing the supervision of the unfinished theses, I will continue to work with them, as a second supervisor for some theses, and I may also work on some research projects.
Why didn’t you think about looking for another country that would give you permanent work after the age of 62?
I spent 30 years outside Iraq, and I had to return to my homeland, while being careful not to sever my ties with the University of Science Malaysia, so I applied for a talent residency, which is a 10-year renewable residency granted after evaluating the person’s achievement and CV. I thank God that I have a good CV and a record full of annual honors from the King of Malaysia, due to the amount of published research and its quality, which qualified me to obtain it.
silver nanowires
One of the most important Your research This year’s post was about silver nanowires with your Gazan student Anas Al-Qanou. Can you give us an idea about it?
Before talking about silver nanowires, let me first commend Anas Al-Qanou. When he came to me asking to supervise his thesis, he wanted his research direction to be theoretical, but I told him that I only work on the applied side, so if you don’t want that, you can look for another supervisor. But he agreed to change his direction, and worked day and night until he was able to produce results in just 4 months, which we shared in research conferences. They were of such quality that a German research team asked to visit us in the lab to see samples of the product.
What’s new in your product?
It’s good that you asked this question, if you do a search on the Internet you will find dozens of researches on the production of silver nanowires, but what is special about our work is that we succeeded in producing them with a high purity that makes them eligible for practical application.
What is the value of silver nanowires?
It has many applications in touch devices, including mobile phones, as it helps achieve the goal that manufacturers want, which is to produce foldable screens, as the material currently used in manufacturing does not allow folding, and leads to breakage of the screens, while the pure silver nanowires that we succeeded in producing can be helpful in that.
The gap between research and application
I had a question raised by your CV, but I preferred to save it for the end. It is related to your work at the beginning of your career in producing lasers at one of the military research centers. And because many weapons currently depend on lasers, this prompts me to ask you: Can the Arab world produce these weapons locally?
In the Arab world, we can manufacture lasers in laboratories. We have wonderful and creative minds in the laboratory, but transforming this work into an applied product is still a distant dream. The gap between basic research and application is very wide.
What is the value of research if it is not transformed into an application, even if it is good research like the research of your student Anas Al-Qanou?
The idea is feasible, but we don’t have the companies to benefit from it, and I expect that when the war ends, many foreign companies will be keen to attract Anas. But at least we will have a foundation to build on when there is the political will to bridge the gap between research and application.
If we wanted to get some advice from you in conclusion to offer to Arab researchers, what would you say?
I tell them that they should pay attention to scientific platforms, because by subscribing to them they will get a lot of knowledge, ideas and guidance. As I told you before, we have brilliant minds, but they need guidance, and scientific platforms can support this mission.