During his long career as a scientist, Dr. Fatah has developed among other things the currently popular self-adhesive postage stamp, which is environmentally friendly, and recyclable with non-toxic security inks.  Dr. Fatah has also published many papers and wrote book chapters on several areas of chemical sciences; he has also reviewed new books for publishers such as the Chemical Rubber Company (CRC) Press.  Dr. Fatah has received many awards over the years including the Zappert award from the American Chemical Society, the US Postal Service Merit Award, the Team Leadership Award for Environmental Achievement from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture; and the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service, Leadership and Accomplishments, awarded by the Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce which is the highest award given to U.S. Civil Service.

WardheerNews takes this rare opportunity to recognize Dr. Fatah's achievement in his professional field and presents him to its readership. Mr. Ahmed A. Hassan conducted the interview for WardheerNews

WardheerNews (WDN): Dr. Fatah, can you briefly talk about your background?

Dr. Fatah: I was born in Laasqoray, an old and historic town on the Red Sea in what was then British Somaliland; it is now in the “Sanaag Region” of Somalia.  I want to Quranic School and then Elementary School in Laasqoray.  I attended Dayaxa Intermediate School, and then Amoud Secondary. 

After finishing Secondary School in June 1968 with a High School Diploma and General Certificate of Education (GCE), with Honors from the University of London, I was one of the first class of Students who were accepted to attend the then new National College of Education “Lafoole” at Afgoi, Somalia which was primarily a teacher’s college. The College was run at the time by American teachers who were affiliated with the Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI. 

After about eight months at Lafoole College, I decided to leave the College and try my luck overseas to get an education somewhere else and get trained in the professional sciences rather than be limited to teaching.

 I left Somalia just a week after the Military Coup of October 21, 1969 on a scholarship, with five other students, to attend Kuwait University.

WDN: When did you first become interested in pursuing a career in science, and chemistry in particular?

Dr. Fatah: My interest in science was initially stoked by one of my teachers at Amoud Secondary School.  His name was Christopher Jones and he was an American Peace Corps teacher.  Mr. Jones taught us chemistry, physics and biology.  Even though Amoud was relatively an excellent school, we did not have a well-equipped laboratory to do many science experiments in the natural sciences.  But that did not stop Mr. Jones; he was a unique character and he had such a flare and creativity that he will improvise by using materials that are readily available in the local stores or at home or the village market place, replace the fancy lab equipment with home made materials and still manage to do scientifically credible and interesting experiment. 

Every experiment with Mr. Jones in the Lab was a moment of awe and wonderment!  I learned from him that with the proper curiosity and imagination, you can accomplish a lot, instead of sitting there and complaining how poor you are or how difficult the situation is. 

When I enrolled in Kuwait University, it was operating under a British University system. 
I wanted to study medicine, but unfortunately at the time, Kuwait University was only a few years old and it did not have a Medical School yet.  So I decided to enroll in the Faculty of Science, since at that time, the system required freshmen to decide whether they want to major in the arts or the sciences. 

After the first year of general sciences and math, I decided to major in chemistry, due to following two influences: First, my organic chemistry professor, an Egyptian Professor who was on loan to Kuwait University from Ain Shams University in Egypt; he was probably the greatest chemistry teacher I have ever known; and second, since Kuwait’s Economy is basically built on oil, chemistry students used to get assigned independent projects where they work with Chemical Engineers and Chemists at the Kuwait Oil Companies refineries and petrochemical plants. 

Students may learn, hands on, various aspects of the oil industry such as refining crude oil, fractionation, petrochemicals manufacturing, feedstocks manufacturing, and the myriad products that are essential for the modern world, thanks to modern chemistry and petrochemicals. 

This was the driving force behind my selection of chemistry as a major and my intense fascination with chemistry as a student, a practicing chemist and now as a professionally recognized expert in several areas of the chemical sciences and technology.

WDN: Was there something in your background or the environment in which you grew up that encouraged you in this pursuit?

Dr. Fatah: I think both the environment and background had something to do in my pursuit of education and professional advancement:

1) First, as a child growing up in British Somaliland, under British System of Education, I was lucky to have received a good educational foundation.  I attended boarding Schools at both middle and secondary school level. Though they were very modest, there was a school fee that was charged to offset some of the costs.  However, they had an incentive system: If you rank in the top three of your class each academic year, you did not have to pay anything.  Fortunately, I worked hard enough that I never had to pay anything in middle school or high school;

2) To graduate from secondary school, we had take the GCE Exam, which is administered by the University of London.  Each year, the same GCE Exam was administered to all secondary school graduates in many British Commonwealth member countries.  So, in essence, we had to compete against and measure ourselves against a larger universe.  This motivated us to study harder and excel.  I took nine core subjects for my GCE Exam and passed all of them with First Class Honors!

 3) When I graduated from Kuwait University, I again graduated with Honors, and when I finished my Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Binghamton University in New York, which is one of the Flagship Campuses of the New York State University System, I again received the “Best Graduate Student Award” and the “Zappert Award” of the Southern New York Section of the American Chemical Society and the Research Foundation of the State University of New York (SUNY).

WDN: You have achieved many successes in your career in science; can you highlight those achievements that you are at liberty to discuss?

Dr. Fatah: I received my Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the State University of New York at Binghamton.  After graduate school, I spent a one-year postdoctoral research fellowship with the New York State Research Foundation where I worked on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research project.

I joined BASF Corporation, as a Research Staff Scientist, in 1981.  At BASF, I developed new ester demulsifiers for breaking water-in-oil emulsions; synthesized a new line of reactive Uvinul compounds to protect polymer films, coatings and structural materials from harmful UV radiation and degradation; I also co-developed with another chemist a proprietary process for removing N-nitrosoamines impurities, synthesized new types of nonionic surfactants for applications such as dishwasher detergents, fiber lubricants, hydraulic fluids, agricultural chemicals, and cosmetics.

I joined Artech Corporation in 1986 as Senior Materials Scientist.  While at Artech I developed new luminescent (both fluorescent and phosphorescent) taggants, based on terbium and europium metals, for use with environmentally engineered water-based ink jet printer inks used in U.S. Mail bar coding for optical character recognition (OCR) of automated mail processing equipment and other applications.

I joined the Federal Civil Service in 1989 at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), U.S. Department of the Treasury as Program Manager/Senior Chemist, responsible for Security Inks and Paper Specifications.  My research focused on material specifications for U.S. Currency and Postage Stamps.  I was involved in the program to switch the BEP from solvent-based to water-based inks to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the District of Columbia (DC) environmental regulations and, with another chemist, jointly developed a process for treatment of the waste from the printing inks at the BEP’s new Waste Water Treatment Plant.

I joined the U.S. Postal Service in 1991 as Program Manager, Senior Materials Scientist/Engineer.  I managed the United States Postal Service's (USPS) Inks and Stamp Technology Research & Development Program. The program focused on development of specialized papers for high line screen printing for gravure, offset, flexographic and silk screen printing as well as high quality security inks.  Under my technical leadership, the USPS developed the currently popular self-adhesive postage stamps, as well as high quality, archival stamp paper, environmentally benign self-adhesives that are recyclable, non-toxic security inks, water-based meter inks and, water-based ink jet printing inks.  I am also the inventor of the postage stamp cancellation ink that is now used in all U.S. Postal Service Facilities nationwide.

I joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES) as a Physical Scientist, Program Manager, Chemical Systems and Materials & International Relations.  My responsibilities at OLES include: development of chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological and explosives (CBRNE) standards for protective equipment for emergency first responders and other public safety workers; and, development of CBRNE equipment guides; this includes CBRNE personal protection, detection and decontamination equipment.  I also manage programs focused on development of new analytical procedures for non-intrusive analysis of drugs of abuse in hair, saliva, and sweat; less-than-lethal weapons, forensic standard reference materials for use by the national and international crime laboratories.  I maintain active involvement in many Federal technical working groups and also serve as liaison to several international standards organizations (e.g. BSI, CEN) on personal protection equipment standards

I have published many scientific papers and wrote book chapters; I also reviewed new books on CBRNE for publishers such as the Chemical Rubber Company (CRC) Press.  I received many awards over the years including:  the Zappert Award from the American Chemical Society; the US Postal Service Merit Award and the Environmental Stewardship Award; the Team Leadership Award for Environmental Achievement from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture; and, the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service, Leadership and Accomplishments, awarded by the Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce.  This is the highest award awarded to U.S. Civil Service employees for distinguished service.  I am an active member of many scientific and professional organizations, and have served in leadership positions in some of these, including:
1) The American Chemical Society (ACS), 2) the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), 3) The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), The American Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), 4) The Interagency Board for Equipment Standardization and Interoperability (IAB), 5) The American National Standards Institute’s Homeland Security Standards Panel (ANSI-HSSP), 6) The National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCCHE), 7) The British Standards Institution (BSI) and a host of others.   

WDN: Obviously, you have had a diverse and exciting scientific career.  From your experience, what kind of dedication and discipline does it take to become a scientist?

Dr. Fatah: You do not have to be more dedicated or smarter than graduates of any other discipline to be a scientist.  However, there are certain characteristics that are more common in scientists.  These include the ability to: 1) to have a sense of curiosity and an inclination to explore; 2) Ask why, and how instead of accepting things on face value; 3) be guided by logic and reason instead just pure emotion; 4) contemplate the things around you; that way you appreciate the complexity, and beauty of God’s creation.

WDN: The Somali education system was destroyed during the civil war, however, there are a plethora of private schools and universities flourishing in the country, creating these institutions requires accreditation, what advice do you have in this field?

Dr. Fatah: It is unfortunate that the Somali Educational System was destroyed by the civil war and the resulting disintegration of civil society in Somalia.  However, if there is silver lining some where in this tragedy it is that nowadays, with this wired world, there are schools and universities without walls every where.  With the Internet, virtual universities have come to everyone in every corner of the globe; you do not have to enroll in virtual universities in your country only, but you can enroll in universities continents away.

Moreover, it is a lot cheaper to attend and study in on-line universities.  Although there are a few con artists out there that people have to be careful about, there are a lot of respected and well-known institutions the provide on-line classes and degree programs.  All that one needs is an Internet connection at home (wired or wireless) or access at an Internet Café; I understand that this is now available in most cities and towns in Somalia.  As for accreditation and recognition, the Universities and Colleges that are now operating in Somalia have to join the international accrediting organizations and they also have to develop cooperative sister relationships with universities in other countries who are willing to help with books, curriculum development and other educational and academic guidelines and standards.

WDN: How and what the Somali professionals in the Diaspora can contribute to the new higher education institutions that were and are being established in the various regions of the nation?

Dr. Fatah: The Somali professionals in the Diaspora have to take an active and supportive role in encouraging and nurturing the new higher education institutions that are springing in many parts of Somalia.  They should help materially, with fund raising efforts, books, and establishing useful connections between Somali Institutions and those of the countries where Somali expatriates live and work and where they may have good connections with the local educational institutions. 

Most of all, professionals should provide direct service by taking sabbaticals when they can, travel to Somalia to teach or help in whatever capacity they can contribute.  Finally, they should consider going back home if they retire or want to start new businesses and careers; that way, they may be able to give back some of their education and experiences to the communities in their native country.

WDN: It is known fact that scientists and other highly trained professionals from developing countries flourish in the United States.  What can developing countries, like Somalia, do to reverse the severe brain-drain?

Dr. Fatah: I think the biggest draw that can attract Somalis abroad back to the native country is the establishment of civil society and the rule of law.  As long as the country is suffering from lawlessness, lack of national government and civil strive, it will be hard to attract expatriates back to the country.  If Somalia calms down and gets a national government that is based on freedom and democracy, it will have no problems reversing the current brain drain.  Let us hope and pray that good sense will prevail and that Somalia will rise again and take its rightful place among the community of nations.

WDN - What advise do you have for the Somali youth who are now either in high school or college in terms of choosing their careers?

Dr. Fatah: The best advice I can provide young people is: take your education seriously, work hard and strive to be the best.  Growing up in Somalia, we did not carry some of the baggage that is commonly found in some black youth here in America, including some of the newly Americanized Somali Youth, that some how being a good student or showing an interest in science make you “Uncool” or “nerdy”, or not “hip” or what ever the current jargon is; I found that while teaching at college while working on my Ph.D.  Most of my Black American Students did not have the confidence or persistence to stay in science or engineering and by the end of their freshman year, they would opt out and decide to major in whatever they perceived as a less challenging academic area. 

My advice to the young Somali kids out there is “do not fall into that trap.”  Challenge yourself and set the highest standards for yourself no matter what you decide to do, and confidently, expect to achieve your goals as long as you work hard at it!

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