The year 2008 Award of Achievement was presented to Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Rohman, Professor of Civil Engineering at Kuwait University.

He earned the Award "for 30 years of devotion to teaching and research in structural engineering."

This is the first time the award is presented to an academian and researcher. Previous awards were presented to persons with achievements in the construction and engineering industry. Professor Abdel-Rohman was born in Cairo in 1949. He graduated from the Khedewi Ismail High School in 1967, and received the Presidential Scholarship to pursue his engineering study at Cairo University.

In 1972, he graduated from Cairo University with a Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering (Distinction with honor). He was appointed "Demonstrator" and served in this position till 1974. He was them awarded a teaching and research scholarship from Waterloo University in Canada to study for his M.Sc. degree, which was completed in 1976.

Three years later, Dr. Abdel-Rohman was awarded with the Doctorate degree from the same university based on his thesis on active control of vibrations in Civil Engineering Structures.

After serving more than a year as a post-doctoral fellow at Waterloo University, Professor Abdel-Rohman jointed the Civil Engineering Department at Kuwait University in 1979 and has been there since that time. During his first year at Kuwait University, he taught the students who later became the first to graduate from the Civil Engineering Department.

During his career in academia and research, Professor Abdel-Rohman was the recipient of numerous awards including:

• The 1984 "Abdul Hameed Shouman" Award for Junior Arab Scientists.
• The 1996 "Distinguished Researcher" Award from the College of Engineering and Petroleum at Kuwait University.
• The 2007 "Distinguished Researcher" Award from the College of Engineering and Petroleum at Kuwait University.

During his career at Kuwait University, Professor Mohamed Abdel-Rohman is the author and co-author of eight books on Structural Analysis and on Control of Structures.

He was the chairman of the organizing committee of the two Arab Structural Engineering Conferences which took place in Kuwait in 1997 and 2006. He also published more than 65 papers in refereed international journals and over 30 refereed papers in conferences in more than 20 countries.

Professor Mohamed Abdel-Rohman also reviewed research papers and reports for various international journals and organizations including the ASCE journal and NATO.

Professor Abdel-Rohman has educated engineering students in Kuwait for 30 years, he has advanced the state of the art on a complicated subject (Control of Structures) and published research articles in top ranked engineering journals and authored and co-authored eight books. All this was achieved while being in Kuwait and with affiliation to Kuwait University.

Hence, for "30 Years of Devotion to Teaching and Research in Structural Engineering," the year 2008 Award of Achievement was presented to Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Rohman, Professor of Civil Engineering at Kuwait University.