Wissam al-Hashimi received his B.Sc. degree in geology-physics from Baghdad University in 1965 and carried out his military service obligations. In 1967 he was employed as a demonstrator (tutor) in the University of Mosul. He did his Ph.D. at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1968 to 1972, working on the sedimentology and dolomitization of the limestone member of the Carboniferous Middle Limestone Group of Northumberland, northeast England.[1]