University of Human Development lecturer Asst Prof. Dr Ahmed Hama-Gharib Abdullah, often writes under the pen name of Omar Bali, was among the 29 researchers awarded by the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

In a special ceremony held in Sheraton Hotel in Erbil, the capital city of Kurdistan Region, on 15th January 2023, twenty-nine researchers from public and private universities in the Region were awarded certificates of appreciation by the Minister of Higher Education (click here for details). Their selection was based on Stanford University's Top 2% Scientists Worldwide – these are the world’s top 2% most-cited researchers in 2023 according to the data collected by Stanford University.

The Higher Education Minister, Dr Aram Muhammad Qadir, gave a speech at the ceremony and said that having this number of scholars on the Stanford list is an indication that Kurdistan universities are on the right path and follow the correct standards. He encouraged Kurdistan researchers to focus more on the problems at home, social, political, economic, health, environmental…etc, and offer solutions to policymakers.