The Fugitive Chemist/ الكيميائي الهارب

About The Book:

The life story of Dr Abedawn Khalaf (PhD) is a remarkable tale of adventure, danger, love and achievement.

The story begins with the struggles of his early life in Iraq and his subsequent journey to Scotland to study at the University of Dundee. Whilst studying in Dundee he met and married Carol. However, financial hardship resulted in them leaving the UK to go to Iraq with their two young children.

Ultimately, the violence they witnessed on a daily basis in Northern Iraq put all their lives at risk and Carol decided that it was too difficult to remain in a war-torn country and eventually returned back to Dundee with the children. The only way Dr. Khalaf could get out of Iraq and flee the dictatorship regime of Saddam Hussein was by being smuggled out of the northern regions of Iraq, journeying through some of the most dangerous terrain in the world.

His work in Scotland as an academic was ground-breaking, especially his work on MGB-BP3 a new treatment for Clostridium Difficile, a bacterium that is fatal in many humans. His work could have an incredible impact on medicine in the future.

This is a truly epic tale of an amazing man, his incredible wife and their family.

About The Author:

The author was born in Karbala, Iraq in 1952 and obtained a BSc from the College of Science, Baghdad University. On finishing his degree, he was conscripted into the Iraqi army for 18 months, following which he travelled to Scotland to complete his MSc and PhD at the University of Dundee. Whilst studying in Dundee he married and had two children. Due to unfortunate circumstances the young family returned to Iraq.

He was again called up for national service and, after completing twelve months he secured a lectureship at Salahaddin University in Kurdistan.

Unfortunately, the Iraq/Iran war was escalating, meanwhile the Kurds were fighting for autonomy. Life became intolerable and his wife returned to the UK with the children.

Travel for Iraqis was prohibited so the author paid smugglers to help him escape from Iraq on the back of donkeys over the Qandil mountain range into neighbouring Iran. As he entered Iran illegally, he encountered enormous difficulties but eventually managed to travel to the UK via Syria and Cyprus.

On his return to the UK, he obtained a postdoctoral research post at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow where he worked on various research projects until he retired after 29 years' service. He was author or co-author of n...