Vice Chancellor

Professor Abdullah Alshamsi

Abdullah Mohammed Alshamsi was appointed as Vice Chancellor of The British University in Dubai (BUiD) in February 2007. Before this, he was a Professor of civil engineering at UAEU. In 1980 Alshamsi graduated from Eckerd College, USA with a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics), followed by another Bachelor of Civil Engineering with Honors  (Distinction) in 1982 and a Masters in Civil Engineering in 1983 both from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. Alshamsi went on to complete his PhD from Leeds University (UK) in the area of Concrete Properties in Hot Climates in 1988. In January 1989 he was appointed as an Assistant Professor at UAEU. He was then promoted to the ranks of Associate Professor and finally Professor in 2002.

 

Alshamsi has been and still a member of various local and international professional bodies. For example, recently (2016-date), he was appointed as FELLOW of the Chartered Institute of Buildings (FCIOB). He was also a member of American Concrete Institute from1992 to 2005 and an associate member of ACI Hot weather Concreting Technical Committee (1996-200l1). He was the vice chair of ACI UAE Chapter for about 6 years. Alshamsi was a member of the national Building material laboratories from 1991 to 2005 and later he became the chair of the committee. He was also a member of UAE Society of Engineers for over 30 years, and played an important role in the attempt to establish Asian Concrete Institute from 1998-2002. In 2017, he was selected to be a member of Judges committee for Hamdan Bin Mohammed Award for Project Management. Currently, Alshamsi is a member of the chartered Institute of Arbitrators, MCIArb (2014 – date) and as well as a member of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP).

 

Alshamsi has published in numerous journals worldwide in the areas using concrete as a building material for developing sustainable structures in various journal and confeences. He also published significant work in the areas of Talent Management and Triple Helix model with regard to the joint activities of Government, Industry and Academia. He also has participated and presented research output and other professional papers at international educational conferences, and specialized industry forums around the world.

 

Alshamsi was honored by different organization for his work over the years in the areas of engineering education and research as well as community work. For example, he was admitted to the students’ honorary students’ societies in Mathematics (Pi Mu Epsilon honor society) and Civil Engineering (Chi epsilon Honor society). He was awarded the Rashid Award twice, once for his Doctorate in 1992 and the other one the professorship in 2011. He was also awarded the Rashid Bin Humaid Award for Culture and Science in 1991. He is a member of Trustees of Rashid bin Humaid Award since 1992, and member of the Editorial Board of Ajman Journal from 2006. He was also honored by several awards for teaching, research and community service. All of this in addition to his academic and administration contributions at the university level, either UAEU or the British University in Dubai.