Without preamble: Ahmed Aljarallah carried within him a great heart, filled with love for his fellow human beings — and those among them afflicted with disabilities or illness were the closest and dearest to it. He devoted himself to helping them and taking them by the hand. The idea of this symposium was his before anyone else's, yet his eyes closed before he could witness it.
His scientific record
He served as principal investigator of the study of autism and related developmental disorders among Saudi children — research into one of the most debated disabilities in the world: relatively newly recognized, obscure in its causes, and a fertile field for scientific inquiry in research centers worldwide. The study was funded by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.
Dr. Aljarallah was among the first to describe cases of autistic children in international journals in Britain and America, including reports on Rett syndrome, Sotos syndrome and others.
He took part in major national research efforts: the national study of disability among Saudi children, funded by KACST and the Prince Salman Center for Disability Research, which won the silver award for distinguished research; the study of folk medicine in Saudi Arabia; the study of stroke in Saudi children — a detailed clinical and laboratory investigation of its causes, supported by the Prince Salman Center for Disability Research; and a genetic and epidemiological study of selected neurological disorders in Saudi children, supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and KACST.
He served on specialized scientific committees at home and abroad: the Standards and Therapeutics committee of the American Academy of Neurology; chairman of the local experts committee and member of the regional experts committee for polio eradication of the World Health Organization; the stroke committee of the American Heart Association; the advisory board of the epilepsy information and support center at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre; head of the scientific section of the Islamic medical committee of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in Riyadh; and the board of the Riyadh Neuroscience Club.
He supervised master's and doctoral theses in pediatrics, neuroscience and disability rehabilitation, reviewed specialized scientific books — among them *Genetic Disorders in the Arab World* by Dr. Ahmad Teebi — and published widely in local and international journals.
Honors
He received the King Saud University medal for cultural activity at the College of Medicine, and a special commendation from the organizing committee of the conference “Advances in the Treatment of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders” held in Jeddah. His biography was listed among distinguished physicians in American reference works, including *Who's Who in Medicine* (1998).
Other contributions
Through his membership of its organizing committee, he helped prepare the first international conference on the disabled in Saudi Arabia, organized by the Disabled Children's Association in Riyadh in 1992 at the King Faisal Conference Hall.