The Nadim Makdisi Memorial Fund at AUB will honor the life and legacy of the late Nadim Makdisi by sponsoring an annual lecture and funding research in the field of media and communications. Richard Makdisi, the son of Nadim, generously endowed the fund with a donation of $200,000. The memorial fund and its activities are housed at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at AUB.

Every year IFI will organize an annual Nadim Makdisi Memorial Lecture by a distinguished Arab or international personality in the field of mass media and communications and their intersection with public policy. The first lecture will be held in the fall semester of the 2009-10 academic year. The fund will also offer several fellowships to AUB graduate students to undertake research related to journalism and communications, the fields that defined Nadim Makdisi's professional life.

Nadim Makdisi, who co-founded the Anis Makdisi program in Arabic Literature at AUB, was the son of late AUB Professor Anis Makdisi and Selma Khoury. He was educated at AUB, Columbia University and the American University, where he obtained a PhD in mass communications. During his long and prolific career, he worked for the Christian Science Monitor, BBC and TeleLiban in Lebanon, and founded Alam Attijara, one of the first business magazines covering the Arab region.

At a ceremony in AUB President Peter Dorman's office earlier this month, Professor emeritus of economics Samir Makdisi, brother of Nadim, said: "On behalf of Richard and his family, who could not be with us today, and the entire Makdisi family, we are delighted that Nadim Makdisi's lifelong activism in promoting quality journalism in the Arab world will live on at AUB in the form of this annual lecture and research scholarships."

President Dorman said that, "The link between AUB and the Makdisi family is old, deep and strong, and we are pleased to expand it further with the Nadim Makdisi Memorial Fund. The fund's activities will contribute to a core university mission of promoting quality research, while also impacting beyond the campus through the annual lecture and the work of the Issam Fares Institute."

For more information on graduate student grant applications, please visit Nadim Makdisi Memorial Fund at the IFI website.