The Kuwaiti female academic and civil engineer, Nora Mohammad Al-Meshaan, has earned a PhD in engineering of coasts and oil seepage, vowing to contribute to national efforts to conserve the marine environment.
Engineer Al-Meshaan, the first Kuwaiti and Arab woman to specialize in this domain with a high degree, says she grants her PhD from the renowned American University, Johns Hopkins, to His Highness the Amir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the top architect of the country's development process.
In an interview with KUNA, Dr. Al-Meshaan acknowledged that it was not an easy task to reach this high level of academic education in this field, noting that the help she had gotten at home as well as the information and expertise she had gained in Kuwait proved helpful in her higher studies.
Dr. Al-Meshaan's specialization covers studies of sea waves, sea-bed nature, construction of sea-side houses, bridges and clearing oil spills.
Kuwait, a country situated in the north of the Gulf, is one of the world's top oil exporters. It has a vast oil infrastructure which it successful rebuilt quickly after it was badly damaged by Iraqi occupation forces during the 1990-1991 occupation.
Dr. Al-Meshaan told KUNA that she would re-join the teaching cadres at Kuwait University and pursue special studies and researches "to relay my experience here in the United States to my homeland Kuwait." The first Kuwaiti and Arab woman to earn the doctorate in this unique field also told KUNA that she was aspiring to coordinate with the Kuwaiti oil companies and Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research "to apply some of the new theories in the sectors of oil and environments.
"I favor practical experience rather than theoretical teaching and this what has spurred me to join this special and practical domain and I believe that this specialization will be useful to express gratefulness toward to my country." Dr. Al-Meshaan said she earned the doctorate within a very short period of time due to the strong support she had been granted from her professors and husband as well as expertise of seven years of teaching at the KU.