Sever professor pursues global mission in engineering education, negotiation
Habib Chamoun shares Sever connection with his son, Antoine
For the past two years, Habib Chamoun, adjunct professor in the Sever Institute, has taken his passion for education and negotiation across the globe. He has presented at world-renowned conferences, taking him to Oslo, Norway; London; Paris; and Santiago de Compostela and Madrid, Spain, including the EFMD Global Conference, the British Academy of Management, the Sorbonne University and the Economics in Education Association. His central theme: How to keep students truly engaged in higher education, especially in online environments.
In 2025, his work was recognized at the Irish Lebanese Foundation with the Cedar Award, one of the highest distinctions. In honor of his contributions, a Cedar of Lebanon tree was planted in his name in Lebanon, its GPS location marking his legacy. That same year, he expanded his scholarly contributions with presentations on artificial intelligence in negotiation preparation at the Sorbonne in Paris; on student engagement at the ASEPUMA – International Congress of Mathematics in Toledo, Spain; and on the profile of a successful negotiator in Latin America at the National University of Rosario in Argentina.
But beyond the international conferences and awards, Chamoun’s story is deeply personal. Decades ago, he earned a doctorate in chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2025, his son, Antoine, walked the same halls, studied under one of the same professors and earned the same doctorate in chemical engineering, 37 years after his father.
Antoine, who earned a doctorate in 2025, began his academic journey in a dual degree program. He earned a bachelor’s in mathematics with a minor in physics from St. Edward’s University in 2018, a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s in engineering management from WashU’s Sever Institute in 2021. His father later taught in the same program.
Chamoun continues to bridge continents and disciplines. He is a professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin, teaches cross-cultural negotiations at the Sever Institute, lectures at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and is a visiting scholar at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest in Angers, France.
The Chamouns’ story is not just a professional journey, but a living legacy of scholarship, mentorship and family tradition, rooted in education and carried forward across generations.
