a Nobel laureate once said the beauty of
research is that you never know where
it’s going to lead and indeed when I
started back in 2011 I never imagined
that in a few years time I will be
standing giving it that talk about my
experience with research so my story
began in November 2011 I was a biology
pre-medical student back then
and I remember we were having few guests
from a thousand Lebanese village at home
and I entered the living room to say hi
i sat alongside
a man who had this little booth er sat
in his lap we’re gonna call him out it
was a 28 year old man he was married it
was a formula and he has this wanted to
go to child but was striking about at
math was that he had lost his right arm
and had a patch covering his right eye
now throughout the night we chatted and
I got to know him a bit more but my
sense of curiosity could not resist
asking him so what happened he choked up
a bit and said it’s all because the
damned fix I lost them while picking fix
now I was confused I don’t understand
how can someone lose an arm and then I
while picking fix so he followed up
instantly with I’m the victim of cluster
munitions he explained to me that after
the deducted after the 2006 war he was
walking in his garden and he wanted to
pick a thing so it happened that a
submunition was saturd on the tree so
when he pulled the fruit it triggered
the submunition to explode and the next
thing he remembered was waking up in the
hospital was with one arm and one hi I
remember his fugitive daughter pulling
my shirt and telling me my daddy is a
it was really a shock for me like I had
heard of some of cluster munitions and
submunitions being scattered after the
2006 Lebanon War but I never saw its
human impact is close now for those of
you who do not know luster munitions are
a type of large weapons they open in
mid-air and release and scattered widely
numerous smaller sub munitions or bombs
what is unique about cluster munitions
is that the bombs the small ones the
submunitions they usually number in the
hundreds and even the thousands at times
and more importantly they have a high
failure rate which means that there is
up to 40% chance that these smaller sub
munitions will not explode upon impact
after the 2006 war the Human Rights
Watch estimated that more than 4 million
submunitions were released over Lebanese
soil and 1 million of which remained
unexploded so when people were returning
back to their homes and plants in the
post-war time they were encountering
these sub munitions in their daily lives
and accidents were happening I could not
take I have not story out of mine out of
my head for three consecutive nights I
could not sleep and I thought I felt
that I needed to do something about it
and because I come from an academic
background with both of my parents being
professors and researchers I thought
that maybe I should do my own research
on the topic and when I found out that
the medical literature had scores
information about injuries because of
cluster munitions I decided I would
start and conduct my own research on
this so I explore I did a multi-level
project I explored anatomical
neurological and psychological effects
of cluster munitions and I was hoping
that by shedding light on the effects of
these detrimental weapons that
and action will be taken to limit or
even prohibit the use of these
detrimental weapons in the future after
getting the appropriate approvals I
dedicated all my spare time just for
data collection interviewing victims and
their families and filling up
questionnaires early on in the data
collection phase primary care physicians
who are having first-hand encounters
with these victims corroborated to us
that they were having difficulties and
determining the level of injuries of the
submunition victims they reported that
the Angelis were poly traumatic which
means that multiple systems and the body
were damaged at the same time and this
was affecting the diagnosis and the plan
of care of the patients and Angelis were
had a word various like there were head
injuries
upper and lower limb amputations
thoracic and abdominal injuries and more
importantly long-term psychological
distress so after two years of extensive
research on the topic I finally go
develop the third scale of injuries due
to cluster munitions to address this
plot this problem and the first scheme
works by measuring the functional
impairment in victims I believe that if
maybe we can stratify the cohort based
on the disability or the limitation and
activity that is being caused by the
submunition this will help in the
diagnosis and it did it happened the
diagnosis and it helped in providing the
best also the treatment for these
victims now after months of hard work
and research my first paper was ready
for submission I was very excited this
is my first able to be published and
after it I will become a published
researcher and more importantly
I felt that this will be my contribution
to the betterment of humanity that the
voices of people like Ahmed will finally
be heard and the effects will be known
and possibly this would help and doing
something about this issue three weeks
later the paper was rejected and this
was my first rejection letter and it was
a shock I was disappointed I felt that
my work was not appreciated and I felt
that the voices of these people of these
victims will not be heard and the
effects will not be known however I
remember how I met despite all of his
agony he was always smiling so I decided
to not lose hope and they did not give
up I resubmitted again and again after
seven months of submissions to eight
rudeness I finally received the five
words that would make any scientists
happy your manuscript has been accepted
so I was ecstatic I was so happy this
was my first paper to be published and
finally my message was out I remember
meeting with nothing at that year and I
handed him the article he read the title
and went briefly through the pages and
then he looked up at me and said now I
am a happy pirate so later that year I
had arranged a research internship at
McGill University in Canada was the
renowned professor Rolando del Mexico
over there I had a completely different
experience with research the goals of
research were different the facilities
the doctor student relationship and most
importantly the mentor mentee
relationship with Professor the maestro
it was a first-time who I met that I met
someone other than my father who treated
me like his son he showed me
important mentorship can be and how
inspiring it can be this experience
contributed to my personal and
professional development on an academic
level I learned how to analyze complex
data on my own how to write better
manuscripts how to target appropriate
appropriate journals and how to address
editors and reviewers needs and on a
personal level of the device who used to
emphasize the importance of remaining
humble no matter what I achieved and
when I returned back to Lebanon I was
adamant to use my new set of skills in
the cluster munition project which was
far from over
and our group ended up publishing six
original articles on a stray munitions
and we became the most published group
on Cluster Munitions in the world and
today I have more than 40 publications
and international peer review journals
and various disciplines global health
conflict medicine neuroscience and
neurosurgery and the fair escape became
a worldwide reference or test
classifying
injuries because of cluster munitions
and most recently my perspective on how
to deal with austere munitions as the
global health hazard has been accepted
by the bulletin of the World Health
Organization and will be published very
as the result of all of this I was
selected by Forbes to be an aswer 30
under 30 list for science and healthcare
which usually includes the 30 most
inspiring young young individuals in the
world who are changing the world and
what they do and are under 30 years of
age and I became the first-ever Lebanese
physician to be inducted into this
prestigious list so my message is this
each and every one of us was created for
a purpose
whatever that purpose is let it be of
benefit to humanity because being of
benefit to humanity is the right thing
to do by instinct and the smart thing to
do because it will take you places thank
you [Applause]
research is that you never know where
it’s going to lead and indeed when I
started back in 2011 I never imagined
that in a few years time I will be
standing giving it that talk about my
experience with research so my story
began in November 2011 I was a biology
pre-medical student back then
and I remember we were having few guests
from a thousand Lebanese village at home
and I entered the living room to say hi
i sat alongside
a man who had this little booth er sat
in his lap we’re gonna call him out it
was a 28 year old man he was married it
was a formula and he has this wanted to
go to child but was striking about at
math was that he had lost his right arm
and had a patch covering his right eye
now throughout the night we chatted and
I got to know him a bit more but my
sense of curiosity could not resist
asking him so what happened he choked up
a bit and said it’s all because the
damned fix I lost them while picking fix
now I was confused I don’t understand
how can someone lose an arm and then I
while picking fix so he followed up
instantly with I’m the victim of cluster
munitions he explained to me that after
the deducted after the 2006 war he was
walking in his garden and he wanted to
pick a thing so it happened that a
submunition was saturd on the tree so
when he pulled the fruit it triggered
the submunition to explode and the next
thing he remembered was waking up in the
hospital was with one arm and one hi I
remember his fugitive daughter pulling
my shirt and telling me my daddy is a
it was really a shock for me like I had
heard of some of cluster munitions and
submunitions being scattered after the
2006 Lebanon War but I never saw its
human impact is close now for those of
you who do not know luster munitions are
a type of large weapons they open in
mid-air and release and scattered widely
numerous smaller sub munitions or bombs
what is unique about cluster munitions
is that the bombs the small ones the
submunitions they usually number in the
hundreds and even the thousands at times
and more importantly they have a high
failure rate which means that there is
up to 40% chance that these smaller sub
munitions will not explode upon impact
after the 2006 war the Human Rights
Watch estimated that more than 4 million
submunitions were released over Lebanese
soil and 1 million of which remained
unexploded so when people were returning
back to their homes and plants in the
post-war time they were encountering
these sub munitions in their daily lives
and accidents were happening I could not
take I have not story out of mine out of
my head for three consecutive nights I
could not sleep and I thought I felt
that I needed to do something about it
and because I come from an academic
background with both of my parents being
professors and researchers I thought
that maybe I should do my own research
on the topic and when I found out that
the medical literature had scores
information about injuries because of
cluster munitions I decided I would
start and conduct my own research on
this so I explore I did a multi-level
project I explored anatomical
neurological and psychological effects
of cluster munitions and I was hoping
that by shedding light on the effects of
these detrimental weapons that
and action will be taken to limit or
even prohibit the use of these
detrimental weapons in the future after
getting the appropriate approvals I
dedicated all my spare time just for
data collection interviewing victims and
their families and filling up
questionnaires early on in the data
collection phase primary care physicians
who are having first-hand encounters
with these victims corroborated to us
that they were having difficulties and
determining the level of injuries of the
submunition victims they reported that
the Angelis were poly traumatic which
means that multiple systems and the body
were damaged at the same time and this
was affecting the diagnosis and the plan
of care of the patients and Angelis were
had a word various like there were head
injuries
upper and lower limb amputations
thoracic and abdominal injuries and more
importantly long-term psychological
distress so after two years of extensive
research on the topic I finally go
develop the third scale of injuries due
to cluster munitions to address this
plot this problem and the first scheme
works by measuring the functional
impairment in victims I believe that if
maybe we can stratify the cohort based
on the disability or the limitation and
activity that is being caused by the
submunition this will help in the
diagnosis and it did it happened the
diagnosis and it helped in providing the
best also the treatment for these
victims now after months of hard work
and research my first paper was ready
for submission I was very excited this
is my first able to be published and
after it I will become a published
researcher and more importantly
I felt that this will be my contribution
to the betterment of humanity that the
voices of people like Ahmed will finally
be heard and the effects will be known
and possibly this would help and doing
something about this issue three weeks
later the paper was rejected and this
was my first rejection letter and it was
a shock I was disappointed I felt that
my work was not appreciated and I felt
that the voices of these people of these
victims will not be heard and the
effects will not be known however I
remember how I met despite all of his
agony he was always smiling so I decided
to not lose hope and they did not give
up I resubmitted again and again after
seven months of submissions to eight
rudeness I finally received the five
words that would make any scientists
happy your manuscript has been accepted
so I was ecstatic I was so happy this
was my first paper to be published and
finally my message was out I remember
meeting with nothing at that year and I
handed him the article he read the title
and went briefly through the pages and
then he looked up at me and said now I
am a happy pirate so later that year I
had arranged a research internship at
McGill University in Canada was the
renowned professor Rolando del Mexico
over there I had a completely different
experience with research the goals of
research were different the facilities
the doctor student relationship and most
importantly the mentor mentee
relationship with Professor the maestro
it was a first-time who I met that I met
someone other than my father who treated
me like his son he showed me
important mentorship can be and how
inspiring it can be this experience
contributed to my personal and
professional development on an academic
level I learned how to analyze complex
data on my own how to write better
manuscripts how to target appropriate
appropriate journals and how to address
editors and reviewers needs and on a
personal level of the device who used to
emphasize the importance of remaining
humble no matter what I achieved and
when I returned back to Lebanon I was
adamant to use my new set of skills in
the cluster munition project which was
far from over
and our group ended up publishing six
original articles on a stray munitions
and we became the most published group
on Cluster Munitions in the world and
today I have more than 40 publications
and international peer review journals
and various disciplines global health
conflict medicine neuroscience and
neurosurgery and the fair escape became
a worldwide reference or test
classifying
injuries because of cluster munitions
and most recently my perspective on how
to deal with austere munitions as the
global health hazard has been accepted
by the bulletin of the World Health
Organization and will be published very
as the result of all of this I was
selected by Forbes to be an aswer 30
under 30 list for science and healthcare
which usually includes the 30 most
inspiring young young individuals in the
world who are changing the world and
what they do and are under 30 years of
age and I became the first-ever Lebanese
physician to be inducted into this
prestigious list so my message is this
each and every one of us was created for
a purpose
whatever that purpose is let it be of
benefit to humanity because being of
benefit to humanity is the right thing
to do by instinct and the smart thing to
do because it will take you places thank
you [Applause]
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