For Aliya Al-Hashim, there is double the reason to celebrate.

After eight semesters of intense research and study in Georgia Tech’s high performance building program, she completed all requirements to earn a Ph.D. And she defended her thesis while she was nine months pregnant. It was the final hurdle. Al-Hashim welcomed her daughter into the world just days before getting the news that she had successfully earned her degree.

As part of her research, Al-Hashim helped develop a comparative tool for designers and decision makers to improve livability in urban spaces. She also studied traditional settlements and the cultural connections of traditional Islamic patterns in traditional architecture, both focusing on her home country of Oman.

“Thank you, Georgia Tech, for four wonderful years of my life,” she said.

Now she is returning to Oman as an assistant professor in engineering at Sultan Qaboos University to help train and educate a new generation of problem solvers.

And Al-Hashim returns with her husband and newborn daughter – who will always be both a reminder and a celebration of her time at Georgia Tech.