Dr. A. Al-Muhtaseb Dept of Chemical Engineering

Ala’a H. Al-Muhtaseb

Education

2000 - 2004 PhD in Chemical Engineering (Heat & Mass Transfer & Mathematical Modelling in Food Processing)

(Awarded in July. 2004)

Queen’s University Belfast (United Kingdom)

PhD entitled: “Moisture Sorption Isotherms and Drying Characteristics of Starch Materials”

1993 - 1999 BSc in Chemical Engineering (Awarded in 1999)

University of Jordan

Graduation project: “Production of Polyvinyl Chloride”

(Process and Plant Design, Cost Estimation and Environmental Considerations).

Awards and Honours

2003 Arab-British Charitable award

2002 IChemE annual award

2002 IChemE prize for best postgraduate student publication in Food & Bioproducts Proc.

2001 Arab Student Aid International studentship

2001 NI TCS Centre (QUB) research studentship

Work Experience

Sept. 2008 – Present Department of Chemical Engineering

Faculty of Mining & Environmental Engineering

Al-Hussein Bin Talal University

Ma’an - Jordan

Sept. 2007 – Sept. 2008 Vice Dean

Faculty of Mining & Environmental Engineering

Department of Chemical Engineering

Al-Hussein Bin Talal University

Ma’an - Jordan

Sept. 2005 – Sept. 2007 Chairman of the Chemical Eng. Department

Faculty of Mining & Environmental Engineering

Al-Hussein Bin Talal University

Ma’an - Jordan

Sept. 2004 – Sept. 2005 Assistant Professor

Department of Chemical Engineering

Faculty of Mining & Environmental Engineering

Al-Hussein Bin Talal University

Jordan

Nov. 2003 – May 2004 School of Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast (UK)

Research Assistant

· Studying the mobility of water binding in solid food products using NMR

· Studying the effect of ultrasonic processing on the rheology of some fluid foods

Feb. 2000 - May. 2003 School of Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast (UK)

· Teaching assistant and demonstration work for (Heat and Mass Transfer, Unit Operations, Fluid Dynamics, and Mathematical Modelling Applications) laboratories

· Research Assistant, providing hands-on designing and building up a pilot plant scale, tunnel dryer (Tray Dryer) to be used for research purposes

· Tutorial marking and examination supervision

May 1999 - Dec. 1999 General Corporation for the Environment Protection, Jordan

· Site Resident engineer (Dangerous Waste Disposal Site).

Funded by (UNDP)

July 1998 - Aug. 1998 Inst. of Industrial Chemistry (NTNU), Norway

· Training course in the Department of Petrochemical, Catalysts Group.

Teaching

Principles of Chemical Engineering

Thermodynamics

Fluid Mechanics
Heat & Mass Transfer

Chemical Reaction Engineering I & II

Process Dynamics & Control

Electrochemical Engineering

Extra-Curricular Activities

Supervision of final year undergraduate and MSc research projects

- Assisted students in carrying out & design of experiments and analysis of data.

§ Textural behaviour of coated and uncoated cheese during deep fat frying

§ Improvement of barriers properties of edible films

§ Moisture sorption studies of commodity and speciality powders

§ Drying behaviour of biscuit baking in combined microwave and conventional ovens

Memberships

1- Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), UK.

2- IChemE Food and Drink Subject Group committee, (IChemE), UK

3- Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), UK.

4- Jordan Engineers Association, Jordan.

5- Jordan Environment Society, Jordan.

Training Courses

· Technical Paper Writing, QUB

· Technical Report Writing, QUB

· Laboratory Demonstration and small Group Teaching, QUB

· Presentation Skills, QUB

· Project Management, QUB

· ISO 14000, Jordan Engineers Association, Jordan

· Introduction to Finite Element Analysis, QUB

· Introduction to CFD, QUB

Computer Skills

ICDL; JANDEL (Non-linear Regression Analysis);

MATLAB & Simulink; CFD;

Polymath (Non-linear Regression Analysis)

Languages

Arabic Mother tongue

English Excellent

Driving License

1- Jordanian Driving License

2- British Driving License

Referees

Publications

Journal Articles Submitted:

1- Al- Harahsheh, M & Al-Muhtaseb, A.H. (2009). Microwave Drying Kinetics of Tomato Pomace: Effect of Osmotic Dehydration, Journal of Chemical Engineering and Processing, 48, 524-531.

2- Al-Muhtaseb, A.H. & Al- Harahsheh, M (2009). Drying characteristics of tomato pomace with and without osmotic pre-treatment, Food & Bioproduct Processing, under review.

Journal Articles Published:

1- McMinn, W.A.M., Al-Muhtaseb, A.H. & Magee, T.R.A. (2005). Enthalpy-entropy compensation in sorption phenomena of starch materials, Food Research International, 38: 505-510.

2- McMinn, W.A.M., Al-Muhtaseb, A.H. & Magee, T.R.A. (2004). Assessment of two- and three-parameter Lewicki models for description of Sorption phenomena of starch materials, Journal of the Science of Food and Agricultural, 84: 1695-1700.

3- Al-Muhtaseb, A.H., McMinn, W.A.M. & Magee, T.R.A. (2004). Water sorption isotherms of starch powders. Part 2. Thermodynamic characteristics, Journal of Food Engineering, 62: 135-142.

4- Al-Muhtaseb, A.H., McMinn, W.A.M. & Magee, T.R.A. (2004). Water sorption isotherms of starch powders. Part 1. Mathematical description of experimental data, Journal of Food Engineering, 61: 297-307.

5- McMinn, W.A.M., Al-Muhtaseb, A.H. & Magee, T.R.A. (2004). Moisture sorption characteristics of starch Gels. Part 2. Thermodynamic Properties, Journal of Food Process Engineering, 27: 213-227.

6- McMinn, W.A.M., Al-Muhtaseb, A.H. & Magee, T.R.A. (2003). Moisture sorption characteristics of starch gels. Part 1: Mathematical description of experimental data, Journal of Food Process Engineering, 26: 323-338.

7- Al-Muhtaseb, A.H., McMinn, W.A.M. & Magee, T.R.A. (2002). Moisture sorption isotherm characteristics of food products: A Review, Food and Bioproducts Processing (Transactions of IChemE), 80: 118-128.

Conference Proceedings:

1- Drying Kinetics of Gelatinized Potato and Corn Starches, Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on Engineering and Food, France, March, 2004 (Submitted).

2- Al-Muhtaseb, A.H., McMinn, W.A.M. & Magee, T.R.A. Equilibrium moisture contents and heat of sorption of starch powder, Proceedings of the 13th International Drying Symposium, Beijing, China, Aug 2002. pp 1563-1571.

3- Al-Muhtaseb, A.H., McMinn, W.A.M. & Magee, T.R.A. Moisture sorption isotherm characteristics of starch powders at different temperature, Proceedings of the 6th World Congress of Chemical Engineering, Melbourne, Australia, Sep 2001.