Professor George Saliba of Columbia University to give talk
on the Arabic/Islamic Roots of Modern Medicine and Pharmacology
ALBANY, N.Y. – March 19, 2012 – On Thursday, April 5, at 7:00 p.m., George Saliba, Ph.D., professor of Arabic and Islamic Science at Columbia University, will give a talk on “The Arabic/Islamic Impact on Modern Medicine and Pharmacology” at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Student Center, Room 202, 41 Union Drive, Albany. The event is free and open to the public.
While European science “slept” through the Dark Ages, intellectual developments in the Arab/Islamic world helped transform scientific thought, creating the foundation for modern empirical science and the scientific method. Dr. Saliba will discuss how these developments ultimately led to significant advances in pharmacology and medicine.
Dr. Saliba has been teaching at Columbia University since 1978. He studies the development of scientific ideas from late antiquity to early modern times, with a special focus on the transmission of astronomical and mathematical ideas from the Islamic world to Renaissance Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He is the author of Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (2007) in addition to another eight books which he authored or co-authored.
Dr. Saliba is a native of Lebanon who graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics at American University Beirut where he also earned a Master’s in Mathematics. He then earned a Master’s in Near Eastern Studies/Semitic Languages and his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies/Islamic Sciences from the University of California Berkeley. He received the History of Astronomy Prize from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science in 1996, and the History of Science Prize given by the Third World Academy of Science in 1993. He has also been selected as a Distinguished Senior Scholar at the Kluge Center of the Library of Congress (2005-6), and at the Carnegie Scholars Program (2009-10). Dr. Saliba has been interviewed for the PBS documentary “Empire of Faith” and for the BBC documentary “Islamic History of Europe.”
Dr. Saliba’s talk is part of the College’s new Science, Culture and Medicine Speaker Series sponsored by the Department of Humanities and Communication and the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Saliba’s talk is also co-sponsored by the Iraqi Refugee Project of Albany (a coalition of Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, Women Against War and the Women’s Association for Family Affairs).
The ACPHS Student Center can be reached by turning from Holland Avenue onto Notre Dame Drive, then turning right on Union Drive and following the signs for Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences parking.
For more information about Dr. Saliba’s talk, visit www.acphs.edu, contact Professor Bill Millington at ACPHS at 518-694-7242 or the Iraqi Refugee Project at 518-392-9477. Also check www.womenagainstwar.org.
About Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Founded in 1881, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences is a private, independent institution committed to graduating the best health care minds in the world. The College possesses all of the qualities for an outstanding education, including diverse academic programs, modern facilities, and distinguished faculty. In addition to its doctor of pharmacy program, ACPHS offers four bachelor’s programs and six graduate programs in the health sciences. The College’s main campus is located in Albany, New York; its satellite campus is in Colchester, Vermont. For more information, please visit www.acphs.edu.
