Khamis Abu-Hasaballah '86

A lot has happened since I left the UWC. After leaving the UWC, I attended Trinity College in Harford, Connecticut where I earned a B.S. in Physics and Mechanical Engineering in 1990. Subsequently, I pursued graduate studies and earned an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the Hartford Graduate Center (now Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute–Hartford) in 1993, and Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1997.

I joined the University of Connecticut Health Center as a research assistant in 1994, where I served as a data manager for a clinical study. Later, I became an instructor and Director of Medical Informatics in the General Clinical Research Center http://gcrc.uchc.edu/informatics/informatics_staff.html.

I was married to Noora Gayleen Brown in the fall of 1995. We have a six-year-old son, a three-year-old daughter, and, by the time you are reading this, we will have had our third, who is due late September.

I coach soccer for the town’s five to six year olds, which I must say is a challenge, but I enjoy it very much! I still like to play soccer once in a while and enjoy a good swim with the kids. Over the years, I have become an avid runner and also enjoy working out in the gym.

I became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1997. The situation in my first homeland—Gaza—seems to get from bad to worse. The brutality of the occupation has taken its toll: the population is poverty-stricken as many are unable to travel to work; malnutrition is rampant; and despair is everywhere. Let’s hope that the light at the end of the tunnel will shine through one day soon!

Looking back at my life-track, I consider myself one of the luckiest people on earth. I attribute that to a large extent to the UWC, the people who brought me there, to those who helped me through difficult days, and to the friends I made over my two-year tenure. Thank you—I amforever indebted and grateful to you all!

(This profile appeared previously in the Fall 2006 Kaleidoscope)