(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — The American University of Beirut (AUB) has voted to elect Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, as the 16th president of the university.
Dr. Khuri, who has been an AUB trustee since 2014, is presently Chairman of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA.
He will be installed as the successor to Dr. Peter Dorman, who has served AUB since his appointment in March 2008.
The announcement followed an intensive international search commissioned by the AUB Board of Trustees that included direct input from AUB faculty, staff, and global alumni communities.
AUB Board Chairman Dr. Philip S. Khoury, who co-chaired the search committee with Trustee Dr. Huda Zoghbi, said they were searching for a candidate that had international recognition and proven ability.
“The committee was particularly attentive to the needs of the university as defined by its own constituents,” Khoury said. “We found great consistency in the attributes AUB students, faculty, alumni, and other stakeholders identified as critical for the university’s leadership and we are completely confident that Dr. Khuri embodies those attributes.”
Dr. Khuri was born in Boston, Massachusetts and brought up in Beirut, where he attended AUB from 1981-82. He moved to the US in 1982, and earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale University, in New Haven, CT, and his MD from Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York, NY.
He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Boston City Hospital, Boston, MA, and his fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.
“President-elect Khuri is a highly accomplished educator and researcher and an articulate voice on the imperative of liberal arts education in the Arab world,” said Khoury. “Equally important, he is a person of profound personal integrity.”
Dr. Khuri has led the recruitment of over 90 faculty including 60 clinical investigators to Emory University, helping oversee an increase in adult cancer patients from 143 in 2002 to over 650 in 2014.
“It is a genuine honor and a privilege to have been selected to lead AUB into its 150th year,” said Dr. Khuri. “The legacy of this remarkable, world class institution is evident in the breadth and depth of contributions its faculty, students and alumni have made to every aspect of life in Lebanon, the region and the world.”
Incumbent President Peter Dorman, who announced his intention to resign in June of last year, will take a sabbatical with the intention to return to the AUB faculty in 2016.