Dr. Wissam S. al-Hashimi was an Iraqi geologist born in Baghdad. He was Secretary General of the Union of Arab Geologists until his death in 2005. In 2001 he was elected president of the Geological Society of Iraq and was president of the Union of Arab Geologists. From 1996 to 2002 he was vice president of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). He was killed in late August or early September 2005.