Prof. Souha Kanj

We are delighted to inform you that yesterday, Professor Souha Kanj, ISAC Executive Committee member, received an honorary doctorate from Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, at the university’s 97th anniversary ceremony.

Honorary doctorates from Radboud University are awarded in recognition of exceptional achievements in science or for special non-academic achievements and to receive such an award is a tremendous accolade. Honorary doctorates have been awarded by Radboud University since 1947 and Souha joins the list of other esteemed previous awardees including Angela Merkel and Mary Beard. You can view the list of previous awardees here.

Souha, a highly regarded physician in internal medicine, has been head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon since 1998. She also holds an appointment at Duke University Medical Center in America.

Souha is an authority on the issue of global antibiotic resistance and published the first overview of antibiotic resistance in the Arab world. Notably, Souha was the first woman in the Arab world to lead an Infectious Diseases Department. Her work has led to Lebanon conforming to the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for Hand Hygiene. She is a highly regarded physician, is directly involved in the fight against COVID-19 in Lebanon and is active within the WHO. She often works under difficult conditions in Beirut, which has not only been struck by an economic crisis, but also by the COVID-19 pandemic and most recently by a devastating explosion.

Due to the current situation, Souha was unable to attend the ceremony in person but gave an inspiring acceptance speech via live stream which you can watch here.

Many congratulations, Souha, on this very well-deserved and outstanding achievement.