As part of the cultural season of the Environmental Research Center

Assist. Prof. Dr. Sedik Ahmed Kasim (lecturer in the Department of Sustainable Development-ERC) presented a lecture on Tuesday, 28/1/2020 at 12:00 entitled “Alternatives and Environmental Significance”. The lecturer stated that the appearance of the European Renaissance in the eighteenth century led to the generation of an industrial revolution, which reflected positively on the various sides of life (economic, social, etc.). At the same time, it reflected negatively on the environment side in terms of the emergence of environmental pollution as a global phenomenon, which directly affected the essential requirements of life in water, air and food, as well as changing the environmental balance and consequently a great damage in the agricultural area in conjunction with a real problem in terms of the defect in providing the necessary need for food products occurred. Therefore, it was necessary to search for alternatives to avoid this problem and moving toward the chemical industry in terms of the use of chemical fertilizers. The excessive use of them led to the deterioration of nutritional value of agricultural crops and the direct impact on the environmental balance of natural elements.

The technical progress has contributed to development of the concept "protected agriculture", which means the provision of agricultural crops throughout the year. Apparently, this concept indicates that there are positive benefits from its use, but there is a concern about the possibility of a direct relationship in terms of the effect between this concept and climate changes. The use of protected agriculture and greenhouses may effectively limit the process of absorbing the significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by plants under the photosynthesis process.

The lecturer recommended that searching for the environmentally friendly alternatives should be carried out by encouraging scientific research and using modern technologies in this field such as renewable energies and adopting modern irrigation methods.

As part of the cultural season of the Environmental Research Center

Assist. Prof. Dr. Saadi M. D. Al-Nuzal (lecturer in the Department of Environmental Pollution-ERC) presented a lecture on Tuesday, 21/1/2020 at 12:00 entitled “Scientific Promotions at UOT in Accordance with the Instructions for Promotions No. 167 of 2017”. The lecturer clarified the technical details relating to these instructions, which are an essential prerequisite for obtaining the scientific promotion for the university academic staff in terms of their relationship in two significant sides. The first side relates to scientific outputs in terms of publishing research in well-qualified international journals, authoring scientific books, submitting patents, and effectively participating in scientific conferences. While for the second side, which is organizational for these scientific outputs, according to Tables No. 1 and 2.

The lecturer recommended that the need to deal with these instructions seriously by university academic staff who are holding various scientific titles and prepare the required materials for scientific promotion early to ensure their applications for promotion are properly processed. Getting the scientific promotions according to these instructions will play a vital role in progressing the Iraqi universities within the international rankings.