Discussion on Green Building Overview: LEED 2009 Update and ASHRAE 189.1-2011

ASHRAE Qatar Oryx Chapter has announced that it will be conducting a full-day seminar on Green Building Overview: LEED 2009 Update and ASHRAE Standard 189.1-2011, on May 19 at the College of the North Atlantic, Doha. The event is sponsored by ASHRAE Qatar Oryx Chapter.

Thomas M Lawrence, PhD, PE, LEED-AP, Faculty of Engineering, the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, will be the speaker. According to the communiqué from ASHRAE Oryx, Dr Lawrence is a Senior Public Service Associate with the University of Georgia, and has 30 years of professional experience in engineering and environmentally related fields. Before going back for his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue, he spent approximately 20 of those years in industry and consulting. He is the chair of ASHRAE Technical Committee 2.8, “Building Environmental Impact and Sustainability”, and is a member of the committee which wrote the ASHRAE standard on high-performance green buildings (Standard 189.1). As an ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer, he gives presentations and conducts workshops on green building design at venues around the world. At the University of Georgia, Dr Lawrence teaches courses in Building HVAC, Green Building Design, Residential Building Design, and Heat Transfer. Dr Lawrence has a BS with the Highest Distinction honours in Environmental Science from Purdue University (1978), an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University (1982) and a second MS degree in Engineering Management from Washington University (1989). He received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in the spring of 2004 researching the impacts of demand-controlled ventilation on energy consumption and Indoor Air Quality in smaller commercial buildings.

Annual Election at Oryx Chapter

ASHRAE Qatar Oryx Chapter has announced in its March Newsletter that it will hold its Annual Election Conference in May. According to the Chair’s message, the Oryx Chapter calls for the election conference to take place in order:

• For the President to release the activities report for the elapsed year.
• For the conference members to discuss the report and to highlight the positive and negative issues and to assess the achievements of the BOG and the officers for the year.
• For the conference to come up with recommendations for the new BOG and officers for the coming year.

The Chair urges the members to attend the conference and take active part in it to improve the chapter’s activities. He also informs all the members and others who are interested that the door is open for anyone who is capable and has the time to serve the chapter, to take the opportunity and submit their CV directly to the Nomination Committee. He adds that the Oryx Chapter always looks forward to having new members in the BOG.

The list of office bearers is as follows:

Chapter Officers:

• President: Hassan Sultan
• President Elect: Hani Hawamdeh
• VP: Subrata Kar
• VP: Hisham Hajaj
• Secretary: Seenu Pillai
• Treasurer: Kinan Fahs

The Newsletter Committee:

• Hassan Sultan: Chair
• Kinan Fahs: Member
• Eugene Bautista: Member

Board of Governors:

• Eugene Bautista
• Ghassan Trabolsi
• B Durairajj
• Mohamad Mokdad
• Fadi Abou Jamra
• Tony Khoury
• Ali Ibrahim
• Diwakar Lal