TARMIYAH, Iraq — Moayyed Jalhoom stands alone as Baghdad officials stream into a small conference room in Tarmiyah, Iraq.

With his short stature, tussled hair and unremarkable brown suit, Jalhoom is nearly invisible at this event. The provincial leaders stream into the room, but they are in no hurry to get to the booth where he’ll talk to them about his work as general manager for the Ibn Sina State Co. They dally at presentations on school renovations and the work of local "Sons of Iraq" groups before eventually circling their way to Jalhoom.

It’s not until Jalhoom opens his mouth that a visitor begins to suspect just how unique he really is. The English that streams forth is clearer than that of many interpreters. Although Jalhoom has no reason to show it today, he can also speak passable Polish and a bit of Italian.

The language is just a glimpse at a life that is unlike any one else’s in the room this Wednesday. Jalhoom has a doctorate in radiochemistry, a degree that led him into one of the country’s most demanding — and notorious — programs.

Iraq was a different country when Jalhoom was born in 1947. Jalhoom got his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1968, the same year Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party launched its revolution. He got his doctorate in Poland in 1977.

The degrees eventually led Jalhoom to work in Tuwaithah, the main site of Iraq’s nuclear program and the location of a nuclear reactor that the Israelis bombed in 1981 to halt the the country’s nuclear efforts — difficult as it is to imagine the mild-mannered Jalhoom as part of anything so controversial.

"We belong to this land," he says by way of explanation.

Ibn Sina’s path paralleled Jalhoom’s. It also began as part of Iraq’s nuclear program. However, the plant became a research and development center for Iraq’s industrial chemical industry in 1992, just after the devastating Gulf War.

The plant has continuously produced liquid nitrogen since then. Jalhoom has also guided the company into fields such as medical gases, oil industry chemicals and silicones — synthetic materials used to make rubber and other products.

Jalhoom continued to grow the company through this most recent war. Trucks carrying liquid nitrogen dodged roadside bombs and American convoys en route to their customers. Ibn Sina now works with such prestigious organizations like Sandia National Laboratories and Jalhoom plans to enter the company into the pharmaceutical industry.

Few in Iraq can match Jalhoom’s experience.

But Jalhoom is like the small-town people around him in one crucial way: He’s suffered the same painful losses that have tormented so many of his fellow Iraqis. Insurgents killed two of his brothers, including a 42-year-old younger brother who died in Anbar before people in the province tossed out the enemy fighters in what would be the start of the country’s turn-around. Jalhoom also mourned the deaths of 20 Ibn Sina coworkers killed by insurgents.

Jalhoom could have fled Iraq long ago like so many of his country’s best minds. He could have been sleeping safely under some Western roof all these years. He could be building his bank account at some established biotech company instead of struggling to launch Ibn Sina’s pharmaceutical venture.

But Jalhoom knows how much work lies ahead for his country — and how much blood has already been paid. He’s planting his feet firmly in the Iraqi soil.

"I believe good people should lead this country," he explains. "That’s why I’m staying."

So today, Moyad Jalhoom, Ph.D., is just one more person who sets up a booth in a garage-sized conference room and dutifully fine-tunes his presentation. Today he’s just one more person trying to put the best face he can on a small town north of Baghdad. Today, he’s just one more person trying his damndest to win over provincial leaders who have neglected Tarmiyah for so long — in effect, making a case that Tarmiyah is a good bet for the future.

Today, Jalhoom is home.