Rasheed Shehadeh

Rasheed Shehadeh
Name	Rasheed Shehadeh
Birth date	1960s
Birth place	Amman, Jordan
Nationality	Palestinian-Jordanian
Alma mater	University of Jordan, University of Oxford
Occupation	Mathematician; Academic; Author
Known for	Work in partial differential equations, applied mathematics, mathematical modeling

Rasheed Shehadeh is a Palestinian-Jordanian mathematician and academic known for contributions to partial differential equations, applied mathematics, and mathematical methods applied to fluid dynamics, elasticity, and numerical analysis. He has held faculty positions at universities in the Middle East and the United Kingdom, participated in international collaborations with scholars from France, Germany, and the United States, and supervised researchers who moved to institutions such as Imperial College London and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Early life and education

Born in Amman, near the Jordan River basin and within the cultural milieu influenced by Jerusalem, Shehadeh grew up amid the political and intellectual currents shaped by events like the Six-Day War and the Camp David Accords. He completed secondary studies at a school affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and then matriculated at the University of Jordan, where he read mathematics under professors influenced by curricula from Cambridge University and Princeton University. He earned a bachelor’s degree before moving to the United Kingdom for postgraduate work, taking a doctorate at the University of Oxford in the tradition of analysts who trace intellectual lineages to Isaac Newton, Joseph Fourier, and Augustin-Louis Cauchy.

Academic and professional career

Shehadeh’s early appointments included lectureships at the University of Jordan and visiting fellowships at the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh. He later joined a research group associated with the Max Planck Society collaboration network, worked on joint projects with the Council of European Aerospace Societies, and held a chair in applied mathematics at a university connected to the Russell Group. His career features partnerships with institutes such as the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Shehadeh also served on advisory panels for regional initiatives that included the Arab League’s scientific committees and international foundations like the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society.

Research and publications

Shehadeh’s research spans analytical and computational approaches to elliptic partial differential equations, hyperbolic partial differential equations, and inverse problems prominent in seismology and medical imaging. He published articles in journals associated with the American Mathematical Society, SIAM, and the European Mathematical Society, collaborating with authors from ETH Zurich, Sorbonne University, University of California, Berkeley, and Tokyo University. His monograph on boundary value problems references methods developed by Serguei Sobolev, Peter Lax, and Lars Hörmander and explores applications linked to Navier–Stokes equations, Maxwell's equations, and fracture mechanics used in petroleum engineering. Shehadeh contributed chapters to edited volumes with scholars from Princeton University Press and the Oxford University Press and presented plenary talks at conferences such as the International Congress of Mathematicians, the SIAM Annual Meeting, and the European Congress of Mathematics.

Teaching and mentorship

In teaching roles at institutions modelled on the University of Oxford tutorial system and the lecture formats of Yale University and Harvard University, Shehadeh developed curricula for courses on functional analysis, numerical methods, and applied topics intersecting with computational fluid dynamics and structural engineering. He supervised doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers who later took positions at King's College London, California Institute of Technology, Nanyang Technological University, and the University of Toronto. His mentorship emphasized connections to research groups at the European Space Agency and collaborations with industrial partners including Siemens and Schlumberger for technology transfer and applied projects.

Awards and honors

Shehadeh received recognition from regional and international bodies: he was named a fellow of a national academy comparable to the Jordanian National Academy of Sciences and was awarded grants from the European Research Council and the National Science Foundation for cross-border research. He won prizes similar to university research medals and delivered named lectures at forums such as the Royal Society’s scientific lectures and the American Association for the Advancement of Science symposia. His work earned honors from organizations promoting scientific cooperation in the Mediterranean and acknowledgment from foundations modeled after the Sloan Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Personal life and legacy

Shehadeh maintained ties to cultural institutions in Amman and Ramallah, engaged with literary circles influenced by figures like Edward Said and Mahmoud Darwish, and supported initiatives in mathematical outreach linked to the UNESCO and the World Bank educational programs. His legacy includes a cohort of students active at universities such as Oxford, MIT, and ETH Zurich, collaborative networks spanning the European Union and the Arab States, and a body of work cited by researchers working on problems related to climate modeling, materials science, and geophysics. He is remembered in memorial seminars hosted by departments modeled on the Institute for Advanced Study and by research groups within societies like the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Category:Palestinian mathematicians Category:Jordanian academics