Consider the career of Mukhles Sowwan, who founded the Nanotechnology Research Laboratory at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem. The lab is the first nanotech center in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to Dr. Sowwan, a Palestinian who has a doctorate in solid-state nanophysics. He also believes that it is the first such lab at an Arab institution in the Middle East.

The lab pursues ground-breaking research under conditions that would bewilder most American and European technologists. But although Dr. Sowwan is its guiding spirit, it would not exist except for the generosity of European donors, the stubborn internationalism of a United Nations organization and the help of Dr. Sowwan’s mentor, who happens to be an Israeli physicist at Hebrew University in West Jerusalem.