Chairing the council will be biology professor Rabih Talhouk who brings a wealth of administrative experience and a critical understanding of AUB’s graduate needs to this position. Talhouk has also mentored more than 40 master’s students and has been involved in strategic planning, university accreditation, and faculty promotion and recruitment at AUB.

Talhouk explained that the council will be an independent unit that reports directly to provost of the University and will help better screen graduate applicants and subsequently enhance research quality standards. “The council will positively enhance graduate studies and research programs at AUB,” he said. “It will also administer unified graduate policies and monitor the implementation of policies concerning graduate assistantship appointments.”

The Graduate Council will work closely with faculty and school deans, the Board of Graduate Studies, and the Faculty Graduate Studies Committees to facilitate and coordinate graduate education, and “to uniformly implement the rules and regulations, the policies and the deadlines, and the standards for quality control which govern graduate work at AUB,” added Talhouk.

The number of AUB graduate programs has grown significantly over the year. In particular the expansion of interdisciplinary programs have prompted the University to review the processes and policies for the governance of graduate programs.

At present, AUB offers more than 50 master’s and PhD programs in different disciplines, and the number of  graduate students  this fall is about 1130, of whom 40 percent are graduate assistants and graduate research assistants. The new Graduate Council will give focused attention to their needs.

A professor of cellular and molecular biology, Talhouk has served AUB as Chair of the Biology Department and has held leadership positions on university committees.  He is a prominent scholar with outstanding scientific contributions to the study the role of membrane proteins in regulating mammary growth and development and mammary epithelial cell differentiation. He also conducts interdisciplinary research on the anti-inflammatory activities in Lebanese plants used in traditional medicine.