,

Ahmed Abukhater () is an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, environmental scientist, and an urban and regional

planner Planner may refer to: * A personal organizer (book) for planning * Microsoft Planner * Planner programming language * Urban planner * Route planner * Meeting and convention planner * Japanese term for video game designer See also * Plan (disambig ...

by trade. He is an author,

powerlifter Powerlifting is a competitive strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athlete attempting a maximal weight singl ...

, and the first athlete to represent

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

at the World Association of Bench Pressers and Dead lifters (WABDL) World

Powerlifting Powerlifting is a competitive strength athletics, strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: Squat (exercise), squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athle ...

Championships in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, in 2006. In November, 2007, Abukhater represented Palestine again in the WABDL World Championship, in Anaheim, California, where he won his division and set a new Palestinian world record.• IMEU. (2007). “Dr. Ahmed Abukhater: Author, Business Executive, and Record-setting Athlete.” Institute for Middle East Understanding - August 10. Available at: http://imeu.net/news/article006168.shtml He set a new record for the state of Illinois in 2004, and holds many national and international records in

powerlifting Powerlifting is a competitive strength athletics, strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: Squat (exercise), squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athle ...

International and world records

Open and elite men's division -198 lbs weight class : ''Set in official drug-tested competition'' * Squat: 630 lbs *

Bench Press The bench press or chest press is a weight training exercise where a person presses a weight upwards while lying horizontally on a weight training bench. The bench press is a Compound movements, compound movement, with the primary muscles involved ...

: 610 lbs *

Deadlift The deadlift is a strength training exercise in which a weight-loaded barbell is lifted off the ground to the level of the hips, with the torso perpendicular to the floor, before being placed back on the ground. It is one of the three powerlifting ...

: 705 lbs

Personal records

Powerlifting Gym Records: : ''Done in the gym (unofficial)'' * Squat: 705.4 lbs *

: 727.5 lbs *

: 749.5 lbs *

total: 2182 lbs He also bench pressed 413.3 lbs for 10 repetitions, touch and go in the gym.

Professional career

Abukhater is currently working for

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

in Digital

Aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

. Previously, he served as senior director of GIS at Trimble Navigation Ltd, global director of product management at

Pitney Bowes Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment, services, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who invented the first commercially available postage m ...

Software,

Esri Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

’s global industry manager for planning and community development and director of PLACES in California and a

GIS A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not ...

manager and instructor at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

.• University of Towson GIS conference, 2010: http://tugis.towson.edu/ He is keynote speaker in a number of areas including

solutions and strategic marketing in Planning and

Community Development The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." It is a broad concept, applied to the practices of civic leaders, activist ...

Urban and Regional Planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

, environmental science and

sustainable development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...

, and trans-boundary

water resources management Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either freshwater from natural sources, or water produced artificia ...

and

Conflict Resolution Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of Conflict (process), conflict and Revenge, retribution. Committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively co ...

.• Johnson, Allan. (2007). “World-class weightlifter chases PhD at Texas - Student takes long journey from Gaza Strip to UT-Austin.” The Daily Texan – February 15, Austin, TX, USA. Available online at: His expertise is focused on the geopolitical and hydropolitical aspects of water resources in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the transboundary management of water resources, and multinational

environmental policies Environmental policy is the commitment of an organization or government to the laws, regulations, and other policy mechanisms concerning environmental issues. These issues generally include air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem man ...

in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

.• McKetta, Elisabeth. (2008). “Everyday Excellence.” GradNews – March 2008. Available at: http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/gradlife/excellence/abukhater.html

Early life

Born in the Palestinian city of

Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

, Ahmed Abukhater grew up in a world of environmental inequity.• University of Texas. (2010). Former powerlifter Ahmed Abukhater fights for water rights in Palestine by Amy Maverick Crossette. Available at: http://news.utexas.edu/2010/05/21/ahmed_abukhater Being a native Palestinian from the Gaza Strip and raised during the Palestinian

Intifada Intifada () is an Arabic word for a rebellion or uprising, or a resistance movement. It can also be used to refer to a civilian uprising against oppression.Ute Meinel''Die Intifada im Ölscheichtum Bahrain: Hintergründe des Aufbegehrens von 19 ...

(uprising), he recognized the value of water as the sustainer of life and peace.• Robbins, Kevin. (2007). “Lifting himself - and his people: University of Texas doctoral student is first Palestinian at world weightlifting championships.” Austin American-Statesman - January 16, Austin, TX, USA. Abukhater holds a Ph.D. in community and regional planning from the

with a focus on water resources management and

conflict resolution Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of Conflict (process), conflict and Revenge, retribution. Committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively co ...

and

mediation Mediation is a structured, voluntary process for resolving disputes, facilitated by a neutral third party known as the mediator. It is a structured, interactive process where an independent third party, the mediator, assists disputing parties ...

(

alternative dispute resolution Alternative dispute resolution (ADR), or external dispute resolution (EDR), typically denotes a wide range of dispute resolution processes and techniques that parties can use to settle disputes with the help of a third party. They are used for ...

) and a master's degree in

urban and regional planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

from the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

and a bachelor's degree in

architectural engineering Architectural engineering or architecture engineering, also known as building engineering, is a discipline that deals with the engineering and construction of buildings, such as environmental, structural, mechanical, electrical, computational, e ...

Specialization

Through education and professional experience, he developed specialization in fields ranging from Planning Analysis and

Geographic Information System A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and Geographic information system software, software that store, manage, Spatial analysis, analyze, edit, output, and Cartographic design, visualize Geographic data ...

(

), Geospatial analysis and multi-criteria evaluation (MCE),

groundwater modeling Groundwater models are computer models of groundwater flow systems, and are used by hydrologists and hydrogeologists. Groundwater models are used to simulate and predict aquifer conditions. Characteristics An unambiguous definition of "groundwate ...

, Environmental Science and

Sustainable Development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...

, to

and Mediation. Abukhater has authored numerous publications, served on governing and advisory boards, and received over 20 awards for his work. His recent book entitled
Water as a Catalyst for Peace - Transboundary Water Management and Conflict Resolution
' is a book that describes a water negotiation framework and provides an exposé of how equity can be linked into the process of international treaty negotiation and governance.• Abukhater, Ahmed. (2013)
Water as a Catalyst for Peace - Transboundary Water Management and Conflict Resolution
Routledge.

Publications

* ''Palestine - Peace by Piece: Transformative Conflict Resolution for Land and Trans-boundary Water Resources'', Springer International Publishing. * ''Water as a Catalyst for Peace: Transboundary Water Management and Conflict Resolution'', Taylor & Francis Group (Routledge).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abukhater, Ahmed 20th-century births Living people 21st-century American geographers Businesspeople in software Environmental scientists Palestinian powerlifters American powerlifters Palestinian emigrants to the United States American business executives 21st-century American architects American urban planners National Geographic Society Palestinian strength athletes 21st-century Palestinian sportsmen University of Illinois School of Architecture alumni University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture alumni Year of birth missing (living people)