Mohamed Hashish (born May 22, 1947) is an Egyptian-born

research scientist A scientist is a person who researches to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophical study of nature ...

best known as the father of the abrasive

water jet cutter A water jet cutter, also known as a water jet or waterjet, is an industrial tool capable of cutting a wide variety of materials using an extremely high-pressure jet of water, or a mixture of water and an abrasive substance. The term abrasive je ...

Youth and schooling

Mohamed Hashish was born in

Alexandria, Egypt Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

to Ahmed Hashish and Zeinab Amin. Mohamed Hashish completed his elementary and high school education in

Kafr El Dawwar Kafr El Dawwar ( ) is a major industrial city and municipality on the Nile Delta in the Beheira Governorate of northern Egypt. Located approximately 30 km from Alexandria, the municipality has a population of about 265,300 inhabitants a ...

. He subsequently attended the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University where he obtained a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering with honors. After serving as a teaching assistant for three years in the same department, 25-year-old Mohamed Hashish accepted a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...

offer from

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec, Canada. There, Mohamed earned his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in mechanical engineering. His thesis was on the theory of waterjet cutting.

Flow International

Hashish joined Flow Research Inc., now Flow International Corporation in

Kent, Washington Kent is a city in King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. It is part of the Seattle metropolitan area, Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue metropolitan area and had a population of 136,588 as of the 2020 Unit ...

, U.S., as a research scientist, in early 1979. Although Flow was involved in waterjet cutting, mainly for mining and limited factory applications, it wasn't until Hashish invented a new technique to add

abrasives An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away by friction. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflec ...

to the waterjet that the strongest cutting tool in the world was realized. This new technology revolutionized the waterjet technology and spread its use in over 50 industries worldwide. Hashish supplemented his initial invention with over 40 patents to date to further improve and enhance the performance of waterjet cutting systems. Due to his outstanding work in the field and consistent advancements to the abrasive waterjet technology, the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

department of

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

honored him with the appointment as an affiliate professor of Mechanical Engineering. Hashish is also honored with the first technology award from the Water Jet Technology Association (WJTA), the pioneer award, and the service award from the same association.

Personal life

Mohamed was married in 1979 to Nadia Afifi, Doctor of Dental Surgery. Mohamed and Nadia have two children, Ameer and Rami Hashish. In his spare time, Hashish enjoys landscape architecture, skiing, fishing and travelling.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hashish, Mohamed 20th-century Egyptian engineers 21st-century Egyptian engineers 1947 births Alexandria University alumni Concordia University alumni Egyptian emigrants to the United States Egyptian mechanical engineers Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University alumni Living people University of Washington faculty