Testimonials

1st 6 months Evaluation: Over the past six months, Bashar has demonstrated remarkable growth, dedication, and professionalism in his role as an entry-level engineer with the City. One of the most notable milestones in his development has been the successful completion of both the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) and the Professional Engineer (PE) exams. Earning this licensure within such a short period is an exceptional achievement that reflects Bashar’s strong technical capability, discipline, and preparedness for higher-level responsibilities. Bashar currently meets all expectations of his position. His first six months have been productive and successful, marked by proactive engagement, effective inspections, engineering plan reviews, and increasing familiarity with City standards and policies. His certification progress and overall performance reflect a high level of potential. He is well on track to becoming a well-rounded and valuable engineer for the City. 

1st 3 months Evaluation: Bashar, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the great work you’ve been doing since joining our team. It’s clear that you have quickly adapted to the role and have already made a positive impact. Your ability to learn quickly, approach tasks with enthusiasm, and tackle challenges head-on has not gone unnoticed. We’re lucky to have you on board, and I’m excited to see the continued growth and contributions you’ll make in the future here at the city.

I enjoy working with Bashar, in part he goes the extra mile to investigate the technical aspects of the work to add value to projects and clients. For example, Bashar looked up some good technical references on UV disinfection design as part of getting engaged in one of our UV projects in Washington state.

Also specifically, in 2022 Bashar was working on the grant funding effort for one of our projects in Oregon state. This topic was all completely new to Bashar, and he did a good job in getting himself up to speed on the topic and getting the memo pulled together for the client. Bashar has worked on 12 projects and tasks in less than 12 months!

I think we also have a great opportunity to leverage Bashar’s lab-scale pilot system that is now set-up at Marine Park for both the city and potentially for many other WW utilities including those facing nitrogen limits for the Puget sound.

During the sampling plan at Oak Lodge WWTP project in August 2021, Bashar’s laboratory experience in graduate school helped him perform laboratory analyses efficiently and effectively. Bashar also learned new tasks such as sampling at a wastewater treatment plant and completion of chain of custody forms. He put in some long days as he prepared sample containers, set up laboratory equipment, did sample preparation, and then transported samples to the laboratory.  Bashar demonstrated a strong commitment to his work by working through the sampling program and making sure that all tasks were complete.I nominated him for a Wow Award as an expression of appreciation for his work on this project.

Bashar is a smart engineer with a lot of drive. He is eager to learn, and eager to get involved.  He is constantly looking to gain more knowledge in areas that can help his career, seeking out work and learning opportunities like college courses on anaerobic high-rate treatment systems.  He has weathered a very hard starting time with a positive attitude and that’s not an easy thing to do.

Bashar is helping to address water quality issues by working to improve thep purification and reuse of wastewater. He has shown great aptitude for his work and has been possibly the most motivated and organized graduate student I have worked with in the last 30 years. He has worked tirelessly to find financial resources to pay for equipment and supplies and he has been painstaking in choosing the best possible materials for the lowest price. He has built a complete prototype of a water reuse facility in our laboratory and is using it to test innovative methods in advanced treatment of phosphorus and nitrogen removal. Notably, Bashar also has taken the initiative to begin establishing regional and international partnership and collaboration. Regionally has spearheaded an effort to establish a formal research and education partnership between PSU and Clean Water Services, a major regional waste-water agency that is known nationally for its innovative facilities and operations. These connections are valuable to our university and will contribute to many future opportunities. He has earned great respect from me, and other faculty for his dedication as a graduate teaching assistant. He has consistently received praise and excellent reviews from students in their teaching evaluations. Finally, our department staff has frequently told me how much they appreciate everything he does in general service to the university and our department. They say they will miss terribly when he graduates.

During the past 30 years of working in the field of resource recovery and water resources management. I have mentored a number of students and without doubt, Bashar is among the top students I have mentored. Bashar has led a challenging life moving to a new country, learning a new language and becoming familiar with a new culture. I continue to be amazed by how quickly he was able to make this translation and integrate into life at PSU and the broader community associated with water resources management. I am very proud of his efforts in this regard and find great joy watching him become a successful student and valuable member of our community.

Bashar is an outstanding graduate student and researcher whom I have known him approximately 3 years. In his role in the Department, Bashar has been a superb teaching assistant in our fluid mechanics course and others. The fluids class has high enrollment (60 students) and a lab component. It is a demanding position. Bashar has handled it exceptionally and performed well according to reviews by both his faculty supervisors and students in the course. It is worth noting that the Department awarded Bashar its Annuel “Services: award this spring. The award is given to the student who demonstrates exceptional service to the Department and who has worked to enhance the student experience at PSU. Bashar was truly worthy of this award.

Bashar is a wonderful mentor to the students and is always thinking about how to engage and encourage them, both as a group and individually. I was especially impressed when he requested a meeting with me to discuss some potential ideas for class activities to help improve student motivation and provide additional learning opportunities. His enthusiasm for water treatment theory and technology is apparent and contagious, easily bridging any cultural gaps.student often tell me how much they appreciate his willingness to answer questions outside of regular hours and how invested in his position as Teaching Assistant.

Scholar, community leader and change agent. These words describe Bashar Al-Daomi. In addition to being a doctoral scholar studying environmental engineering, Bashar is a tireless campus and community leader, always finding time to engage, encourage and support the PSU sustainability community. His leadership at PSU has been and continues to be incredibly valuable for promoting and sustaining effective change on campus and beyond. As one of the first participants in our new sustainability mentor program, Bashar contributed significantly to the successful launch of the program. We are extremely fortunate that of the many places in the world Bashar could have chosen to study, his path led him to PSU.

In all situations, I have observed Bashar’s positive attitude, graciousness, respectfulness, knowledge, and genuine interest in building strong relationships with students, staff, and community members. At Portland’s first annual Sustainability Symposium, Bashar was an ideal representative to share this new opportunity with students because of his thoughtfulness, friendly demeanor, and commitment to sustainability education. He vene presented an engineering-inspired diagram that provided a metaphor for how the network night function. I was impressed at his ability to transfer his knowledge between areas. I always feel confident that he will be prepared when he takes on responsibilities. Bashar excels in intercultural dialogue, his academic research areas, and professional settings.

Bashar won the 2018 PSU Cleantech challenge and represented PSU at the 2018 InventorOR state finals, Bashar invented and developed a method of purifying wastewater by removing phosphorus and nitrogen with the use of specific kinds of bacteria. Bashar’s goal is to reduce the number of chemicals used in wastewater treatment plants and improve the effectiveness of the process at scale. Bashar’s embodies the spirit of the inventor and entrepreneur that will inspire generations to come, and we will continue supporting his future endeavors.

Bashar has proven a driven, collaborative, resilient and enthusiastic member of our PSU community and passionate student and investigator in his field of wastewater treatment research. Bashar has volunteered countless hours to Portland State University’s Office of University Communications and the PSU Foundation to tell his story and have his image used for marketing, promotional and fundraising activities.

Bashar is an inspiring and innovative student at Portland State University and is an active member of the Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network (GPSEN).  As the Director of GPSEN, I value his high integrity, kind demeanor, enthusiasm for sustainability, and strong organizational skills. His ability to communicate the complexities of sustainability issues and highlight ways to engage in solutions is strong and surely would benefit your organization.

As mentor and mentor leader for graduate international students, Bashar is outgoing and very supportive and will go out of his way to make new students feel at home. He shows strong initiative and is very passionate about the mentoring program. He often shares creative ideas of how to grow and market the program. Bashar als works to deepen his self-knowledge and push himself to explore new areas of learning. For example, Bashar volunteered to join a Bystander Intervention Training BIT to be a peer advocate for students experiencing interpersonal violence.

Bashar took the initiative to persuade me that the Institute for Sustainable Solutions should investigate the opportunities for research and educational opportunities with Clean Water Services, a water utility serving 600,000 people in Washington County, Oregon. As a direct result of his efforts we organized two site visits and discussions with Clean Water Services and are in discussions regarding curriculum, faculty and student research (evaluating the performance of Clean Water Services;s efforts) and publicizing their sustainable stormwater treatment innovations. He has offered cogent insights into the sustainability expertise of the faculty here and how to involve more engineering students in our work, advice I take very seriously. I know that PSU faculty, students who know Bashar and his mentor (Dr. Bruce Roll from Clean Water Services) share my impressions of his drive, intelligence and commitment to sustainability.