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Portrait of Salem Hanna Khamis

Salem Hanna Khamis

Pioneering Statistician and Economist

Born
1919
Born in
Nazareth, Palestine
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Why Salem is here

Major Contributions in Statistics and Economics

Their story

Salem Hanna Khamis was a renowned Palestinian statistician and economist, notably remembered for his significant contributions in the field of index number theory and his advocacy for the dispossessed Palestinian people.

Milestones

The moments that shaped Salem’s path.

  1. Born in Renineh village, Ottoman Syria, in 1919 and later moved to Aleppo, Syria, where he lectured and headed the Mathematics department at the Engineering College of Syria University (now University of Damascus).

  2. Visited his home in Palestine in 1952 and returned to the American University of Beirut (AUB) as Associate Professor of Economics in 1953.

  3. Appointed Professor and Chairman of the Mathematics Department at AUB between 1955 and 1958.

  4. Worked as United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Statistician for the Near East between 1958 and 1963.

  5. Chief of the FAO Trade Prices Branch in Rome between 1961 and 1970, and later Director and UN Project Manager at the Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

Legacy

What they built, changed and left behind.

  1. Development of the Geary-Khamis Method of Computing Purchase Power Parity of Currencies, a significant advancement in international economic comparisons.

  2. Authoring the book “Tables of the Incomplete Gamma Function Ratio”, contributing to the field of statistics and mathematics.

  3. Key role in assisting developing countries in improving their food and agricultural statistics through various statistical projects.

  4. Contributions to the field of Sampling theory and tabulation of the incomplete gamma function.

  5. Political advocacy for the dispossessed Palestinian people, particularly during his early career and academic years.

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