Professor Makhlouf J. Haddadin was born in the beautiful village of Ma'in, Jordan, on March 21, 1935. He went to the Hussein College in Amman for high school, and was later awarded a full scholarship from the Jordanian Ministry of Education to study Chemistry at AUB. He received a B.Sc. in 1957 and continued at AUB as an MS student under the direction of the late Professor Costas Issidorides. He did his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry with Prof. Alfred Hassner at the University of Colorado, Boulder. After graduating in 1962, Dr. Haddadin went to Harvard University for two years of Postdoctoral research under the direction of the late Professor Louis Fieser.
In 1965, Prof. Haddadin decided to return to his alma mater as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry, where he quickly climbed the academic and administrative ladders. In 1969, he was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure, and he became a Professor in 1975. He served AUB in numerous important administrative positions, including vice president for academic affairs, acting Dean of Health Sciences, and acting President at some of the most testing times of AUB. Despite his busy time at AUB, Dr. Haddadin found time for distinguished Sabbatical research leaves at many prestigious places including University of Notre Dame, University of North Texas, and University of California at Davis.
Professor Haddadin has been especially celebrated for his achievements in the area of heterocyclic chemistry that resulted in the publication of more than 125 scholarly papers in prestigious international journals. A landmark event in Professor Haddadin's career was his co-discovery of the Beirut Reaction–a reaction that impacted the field of pharmaceutical chemistry and yielded 40 patents in numerous countries. His most recent contributions revolved around the “Davis-Beirut Reaction", co-discovered with Professor Mark J. Kurth of the University of California at Davis. In 2018, Dr. Haddadin was the first faculty to hold the Bonnie and Costantine Issidorides Chair in Organic Chemistry and until his retirement. In addition to Chemistry, Dr. Haddadin was also known for his love and passion for Arabic Poetry. Dr. Haddadin retired from AUB in 2022 after 57 years of outstanding research, extraordinary services, mentoring and inspiring generations of students who currently hold important positions in academia and the chemical industries.
On September 21, 2022, Professor Makhlouf Haddadin sadly passed away in his native Jordan. May he rest in peace.