​Clara Haydar, one of our distinguished and dedicated alumni, who graduated in 2019 holding a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Balamand (UOB), is currently a committed doctoral candidate in France. She was one of our top level students who graduated with distinction holding a GPA of 3.9 and a cumulative average of 92%.   

We, at UOB, have always admired Clara’s commitments and academic performance, knowing that she will go far and not sit on her own laurels. Clara embarked on a PhD program equipped with the knowledge gain from UOB and acting as one of our great ambassadors while pursuing her PhD degree. Clara is now in her 3rd year of her doctoral studies in Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne, France, focusing on “Modeling of reactive flows of particles: Reduction of Models in time and space for the simulation of processes on an industrial scale”. 

What makes her PhD story more successful was her educational journey as an exchange student spending a semester at Polytechnique - Montreal, Canada to expand her project analysis, which allowed Clara to present her work in two international conferences. The first conference was the 9th World Congress of Particle Technology (WCPT9) and was held in Madrid, in September 2022. The second conference was in the Société Française de Génie des Procédés (SFGD) that took place in Toulouse, France in November 2022.

Clara is due to finish her PhD at the end of the year 2023 and is setting her eyes to further enhance her research aspirations by undertaking post-doctoral studies. 

Commenting on her successful story, Clara stated: “During my journey at the University of Balamand, I was eager to gain scientific and analytical skills through embarking in multi-disciplinary projects. After presenting my Master’s thesis, I developed a bigger interest in research, that is when I started pursuing my PhD degree to further deepen my knowledge and expertise”. 

The Vice President for Internationalization and Engagement and the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Prof. Rami Abboud welcomed Clara in his office on 4th January 2023, whilst visiting her alma mater, UOB. Prof. Abboud praised Clara’s sense of commitment to UOB and equally her outstanding academic achievements and wished her continued success in the future. The Faculty of Engineering prides itself on being a hub for innovative dedicated engineers like Clara. 

Best of Luck soon to be Doctor Haydar!​