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News from ICTP 101 - Profile - Wesam El-Qadi
Wesam El-Qadi, a computational expert from Palestine, describes the recent difficulties she encountered when travelling to Trieste for ICTP's School on Synchrotron Radiation and Applications.
Adventurous Journey
When coming to an ICTP research
and training activity, most scientists board an aeroplane and
arrive at the Centre the same--or the following--day. But computational
physicist Wesam El-Qadi experienced a far more adventurous--and
arduous--journey when she tried to leave her homeland in Palestine
in late April to attend the Centre's School on Synchrotron Radiation
and Applications in Trieste.
El-Qadi, who lives with her parents in Bethany, on the outskirts
of Jerusalem, explains: "I learned about my acceptance to
the school in March and made arrangements to depart from Tel Aviv
airport on Sunday 21 April. That would have allowed me to arrive
a day before the opening session on Monday, 22 April. Unfortunately,
I could not get my visa in time and I missed my flight. Nothing
has been easy during the current conflict between Israelis and
Palestinians."
The following week, El-Qadi kept her plans for her trip to Trieste
alive, first by avoiding Israeli military checkpoints on foot
to obtain her visa in Jerusalem and then, accompanied by her father,
by passing through a series of automobile checkpoints near the
River Jordan, to get to Amman's airport. (Tel Aviv's airport had
been closed to Palestinians.) There, she boarded a flight to Milan.
A connecting flight brought her to Trieste.
On Monday, 27 April, El-Qadi attended her first lecture at the
school--a week late but glad to finally be here.
El-Qadi received a bachelor of science degree in 1994 from Al-Quds
University in East Jerusalem where she majored in physics, and
a master of science degree in 2000 from Bowling Green State University
in Ohio (USA), where she studied computational physics and quantum
mechanics. Between her studies, El-Qadi taught high school in
Jerusalem for one year and served as a teaching assistant at Al-Quds
University for two years.
Her current field of interest focusses on entropy computations
as they relate to quantum mechanics. "It's a highly theoretical
field in which we try to calculate and theorise about the relationship
between energy, mass and entropy among subatomic particles."
Throughout her university studies, El-Qadi has always worked within
the broad field of computation. Her earlier research focussed
on improving methodologies for calculating the distribution of
air pressure and velocities in the human larynx as part of a larger
effort to learn more about human speech and phonation--a subject
no less difficult but somewhat less abstract than what she is
doing now.
"The ICTP synchrotron school," she notes, "will
hopefully provide me with additional understanding of the techniques
that may be used to enhance my computational skills in a variety
of fields, most notably in the field of entropy. That was my hope
when I first applied to the school about a year ago. Now that
I have participated in this activity, I'm glad that I did not
abandon my efforts to come. ICTP's administrative staff appreciated
my dilemma and did all they could to keep my options open as my
circumstances and flight plans underwent constant change. If not
for them and the help of my family, I would never have made it."
El-Qadi hopes to continue her studies and earn a Ph.D. in computational
physics, perhaps at a university in Europe or the United States.
Eventually, she hopes to explore career opportunities in her own
region, especially after the Bessy I is relocated to Jordan as
is currently planned under the Synchrotron-Light for Experimental
Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) project.
But for the immediate future, she is mostly concerned about living
and working safely in Bethany, where she has resumed her work
as a teaching assistant.
"The violence, tension, and daily disruptions and humiliations
make it difficult--if not impossible--to have a normal life in
Palestine. Thinking about tomorrow is a luxury when you face so
many inescapable difficulties each day."
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