Obituary: Dr Wissam Al-Hashimi, Ph.D.

1942-2005

A prominent Iraqi geologist, Dr Wissam Al-Hashimi was kidnapped, tortured and murdered during the period he was working on his last paper "Porosities Of Carbonate Reservoirs Of The Mesopotamian Basin: An Insight Into Their Origin", which he was to present at 11.55AM to the Wednesday (14/9/2005) Diagenetic Modeling in Carbonate and Siliciclastic Reservoirs session of the AAPG International Conference and Exhibition in Paris. Instead of presenting his paper a small memorial was held at the session to commemorate him and his lifetime achievements.

Born in Al-Aadhamia district of Baghdad, Iraq, Wissam received his BSc in Geology-Physics from the University of Baghdad in 1965. He joined the department of Geology in Mosul University, North Iraq after his military service in 1967, and left Iraq to England in 1968 in an Iraqi postgraduate research scholarship to the University of Newcastle to study under the supervision of the late Professor J. Hemingway. During his PhD study he discovered recent dedolomitization (JSP V43, 1973), recent carbonate cementation within dolostones (JSP V47, 1977), and published a key paper on the porosity of dolomite under the SEM (York GSP V38, 1972). Dr Al-Hashimi returned to Iraq in early 1972 to head the Mineralogy division at the DG of Geological Survey of Iraq, then he moved to Iraq National Oil Company in 1981 to head the underground storage team responsible for the underground hydrocarbons storage project of Iraq, which was successfully completed by 1990. Following the 1991 Gulf War he was put in-charge of unconventional petroleum storage project, which he successfully completed within 3 years. In 1994 he returned to INOC (renamed then Iraq Oil Exploration Company) to head the sedimentology division, then he became a consulting geologist to the DG of Oil Exploration, and a board member of the Iraqi Drilling Company.

Regionally, Dr Al-Hashimi served between 1973-1974 as Secretary General of the Geological Society of Iraq, became involved with the Arab Geologists Association in 1975, and was elected Secretary General of the AGA in 1993, re-elected in 1998 for a second term, and elected President of the Geological Society of Iraq in 2001. Internationally, Dr Al-Hashimi was elected twice as Council Member of the International Association of Sedimentologists (1982-1990). He co-organised a symposium on Dolomitization and Dedolomitization in Hamilton, Canada during the 11th International Sedimentological Congress in 1982. In 1996 he was elected Vice President of the IUGS, chaired the Petroleum Geology and Reservoir Analysis session of the 2000 International Geological Congress in Rio, and served as a member of the Advisory Board of the 32^nd International Geological Congress, which was held in Florence, Italy in 2004.

Dr Al-Hashimi edited the AGA bilingual geosciences magazine “Geoscience and Arab Development”, authored and published a large number of scientific papers on carbonates and evaporites sedimentology and diagenesis, geo-archaeology, engineering geology, underground storage, and Middle East water resources in Arabic and English. He also regularly published analytical articles in regional press on political and resources issues, such as his famous article on “Israel’s desire for Arab waters”.

Due to the terrible circumstances surrounding his death, the sad news of his murder in late August reached his friends outside Iraq in mid September. In an e mail addressed to one of his colleagues, Dr Al-Hashimi’s daughter described the lamentable circumstances of his murder: ”I am Tara Al-Hashimi the daughter of the late Dr. Wissam Al-Hashimi. I'd like to inform you that my father has died. He was kidnapped early in the morning on the 24th Aug 2005 while going to work; his recent ID papers were stolen. A ransom was given but unfortunately he was shot twice in the head and died. May his soul rest in peace. As his ID was taken from him it took us about 2 weeks to find his body in one of Baghdad's hospitals. Lately he was very busy preparing a paper that he was going to talk about in a meeting in Paris; unfortunately he will not be able to attend the meeting. On behalf of myself and the family we would like that at least the abstract of his paper remains in the meeting's agenda and to be lectured by someone else.”

Thousands of Iraqi scientists, doctors and engineers have been terrorised out of Iraq since the "liberation" while others, who persevered in their country throughout the past decades like Dr Al-Hashimi are being systematically murdered by "organised criminal and/or organised terrorists". His murder is another number in the spinning body counter of Iraqis murdered since the "liberation"; which now amounts to more than 1000 doctors, engineers, and scientists, added to the total death toll of civilian Iraqis which ranges between 25,000 to much more than 100,000 depending on your side of the political fence.

Dr Al-Hashimy was until his murder the elected Secretary General of the Arab Geologists Association. He persevered in serving Iraq throughout his career and helped improve the co-operation between geologists in Iraq, the Middle East and the entire globe. He organised several Arab Geologists Associations conferences (GEOCOME) under difficult conditions in Baghdad, Ankara, Amman, Cairo and Beirut, and he was planning another GEOCOME conference in Abu Dhabi in early 2006.

The geological fraternity has lost a dynamic and dedicated scientist; his kindness, wisdom, diplomacy and good manners will be long remembered by everyone who came in contact with him. His published and unpublished scientific achievements will continue to benefit his soul, his family and future knowledge seekers, and will surely outlive his direct and indirect murderers.

Muhammad W IBRAHIM

Geologist

London, UK.

19 September 2005