Participants and Biographies

Abdulhamid Obaid Abdullah (Kuwait) is a Major in the Kuwaiti National Guard. He currently commands a backup operations unit in support of several governmental departments. Major Abdullah served in various capacities and in wide-ranging departments within the National Guard. He was a technical affairs officer and held a senior post in administering various utilities. Over the course of his career, Major Abdullah has received extensive training, including infantry and foreign language instruction. Major Abdullah is married and has four children. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering.

Mahmoud Hussein Abu Jumah (Jordan) is a Colonel in the Jordanian Public Security Department. In his duties, he has served as director for the criminal investigation department. He has also served as head of the police department in Rassiyfeh, in Balqa’ County, as well as in central Amman. Colonel Abu Jumah has received extensive training in Jordan and abroad in the fields of counter-terrorism and methods of controlling organized crime. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in Security Studies.

Majid Khaled Abu-Rashad (Jordan) is a Major and Analysis Officer at the National Center for Security and Disaster Management. He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations.

Ma’mun Abu-Zuraiq (Jordan) is a Second Lieutenant in the Jordanian Civil Defense Directorate. He is an officer of radiation prevention for Jordanian Civil Defense and is a member of its emergency radiation response team. Lieutenant Abu Zuraiq is also a lecturer in disaster management at a Jordanian Civil Defense School. He is trained in emergency rescue operations involving the deployment of WMD. In addition, he attended workshops on rapid disaster response. He holds a degree in Physics.

Mohammad Amin Abu-Zarour (Jordan) is head of Service Generation Planning for the National Electric Power Company. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Mansoura University (Egypt) and an M.SC in Electrical Engineering from the University of Starthclyde (UK).

James Acton (UK) is an associate in the Nonproliferation Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC. He co-authored the Adelphi Paper, Abolishing Nuclear Weapons, and co-edited the follow-up book, Abolishing Nuclear Weapons: A Debate (both with George Perkovich). Prior to joining the Carnegie Endowment in October 2008, Acton was a lecturer at the Centre for Science and Security Studies in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and was the science and technology researcher at the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC), where he was a participant in the UK-Norway dialogue on verifying the dismantlement of warheads. He is also the joint UK member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials. He has published widely on topics related to nonproliferation and disarmament including in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Nonproliferation Review, and Survival. He holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge.

Abdul-Wali Ajlouni (Jordan) is the chair of the Applied Physics Department at Tafila Technical University, Jordan. Prior to this post, he served as an Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science, and as an assistant Professor. Before joining TTU, Dr. Ajlouni was a researcher on radiation safety for the Ministry of Energy. He has received training on radiation protection and radiological emergency preparedness in Jordan, Turkey, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Iran, and Syria. In addition, he has attended numerous conferences on nuclear energy around the world. Dr. Ajlouni has published extensively on the subject, with titles such as: “Mathematical Model Participants Biographies 56 For Dispersion Of Nuclear Pollutants In Jordan Atmosphere,” and “Quantization of Brownian Motion.” Dr. Ajlouni received a SCOPUS Scientific Research Award in 2009. He holds an M.S. in Physics from Yarmouk University, Jordan, an M.S. in Nuclear Physics from Mustansyria University, Iraq, and a Ph.D. in Mathematical/Radiation Physics from the University of Jordan.

Mohamad Al-Adous (Jordan) is a Ph.D qualified researcher working at the Center of Industrial Chemistry of the Royal Scientific Society.

Jasem Abdullah Al Ali (United Arab Emirates) is a Lieutenant Colonel currently director of the Operations Department at the Public Directorate for Civil Defense in Abu Dhabi. In the past, he was employed by the Civil Defense Directorate of Fujairah. He has received training in various fields related to civil defense and disaster management, including FEMA training in the United States, and other emergency management training in Japan, Switzerland, India, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and the U.A.E. He holds a license in legal and police science and a diploma in police science from the Abu Dhabi Police College.

Hassan Al-Anbari (Iraq) joined the Jordanian Diplomatic Institute in 1995 and is currently the adviser to the President for International Affairs at the Institute, in addition to his duties as director of research, development, management, and the presidency of the National Network of the Anna Lindh Euro Foundation and the Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures. Hassan Al-Anbari served most of his career as an Iraqi diplomat. His Iraqi diplomatic missions included stints in Tunisia, New York, London, New Delhi, and Tokyo. He also assumed the presidency of the Iraqi mission in Bonn (West Germany) several times, Dakar, Dhaka, and later was appointed director-general of the economic relations between Iraq and both countries the system of socialism. After retiring at his request from Iraqi public service, Al-Anbari was named by the United Nations as head of the Economic and Social Commission of West Asia (ESCWA), at its permanent headquarters in Baghdad (1992-1993). Hassan Al- Anbari has participated in several studies in diplomatic and international economic relations and gave a series of specialized lectures at the University of California at Los Angeles, University of Western Australia (Perth), Al-Akhawayn University (Morocco), the Diplomatic Institute of the UAE (Abu Dhabi), in addition to the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy and The Arab Thought Forum (Amman).

Medhat Alawneh (Jordan) is a First Lieutenant in the Jordanian Civil Defense Directorate. He is an officer of radiation prevention for Jordanian Civil Defense. In addition, he is a self-protection officer and a teaches courses on protection at the Civil Defense Directorate. Lieutenant Alawneh also investigates the causes of fire for the Directorate. He has received training on radiological emergency response at a number of Jordanian institutions, the Jus’ef Stefan Institute in Slovenia, as well as the Iranian Nuclear Energy Organization in Tehran. Recently, Lieutenant Alawneh conducted research for the United States Department of Energy on methods of responding to radiological emergencies. He holds a degree in Physics.

Wael Al-Assad (Jordan, LAS) has been working within the system of the League of Arab States since 1973. He is currently the director of Multilateral Relations at the Headquarters of the League of Arab States in Cairo. In 2001 he established the Department of Disarmament Affairs in the Arab League and became its Director. He was also the Director of International Organizations Department in the League since 2000. The two departments were merged under the title of “Multilateral Relations”. He established the Governmental “Arab Committee on Drafting a Treaty on the Establishment of a Zone Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the 57 Middle East” in 1994 and became its rapporteur since its inception.
Ambassador Al-Assad has also been responsible for cooperation with the UN and other international and regional organizations since 1989. He heads the Arab league team in developing mechanisms for cooperation with international and Regional Organizations including the General Cooperation Biennial Meeting with the UN System. He has a number of published papers and articles on Security, Disarmament issues and international relations.

Amani Muhammad Al-Azam (Jordan) is head of the Planning Department at the National Electric Power Company. She works in supervising the preparation of expansion plans for the electrical power grid. Amani holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Science and Technology, Jordan.

Saeed Al-Deeb (Jordan) is a member of the Jordanian Interior Ministry.

Badir Hmoud Al-Gallaf (Kuwait) is a Lieutenant Colonel in Kuwait Armed Forces.

Omar Al-Ghanim (Kuwait) is a Major in the Kuwaiti National Guard. Since 2001 he has been in charge of the National Guard’s medical services in the x-ray department, medical laboratory department, and physiotherapy department. Major Al-Ghanim was also the laboratory technologist for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health at Al-Amiri Hospital’s Department of Biochemistry. In addition, he is highly qualified in the use of the latest medical equipment in his field. Major Al-Ghanim is married. He holds a B.S. in Zoology from Kuwait University’s College of Science.

Ali Abdullah Al-Haj (United Arab Emirates) is affiliated to the UAE Ministry of Defense.

Salim Ali Al-Hafiti (United Arab Emirates) is a Captain at the UAE Ministry of Defense.