Tag: Arab Scientists

LEBANESE Prof. Niveen Khashab Wins Great Arab Minds Award in Natural Sciences

Lebanese Professor Niveen Mohammad Ali Khashab won the Great Arab Minds Award-2023 in Natural Sciences, for her contributions in chemistry, bioengineering and biology.

Her research interests focus on applications of programmable, intelligent, engineered nanomaterials and their uses for medical, pharmaceutical, industrial and environmental purposes. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president, prime minister and ruler of Dubai, said that scientific and cognitive curiosity has been the base of nations’ cultural development throughout history.

The winning announcement was made by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Prof. Niveen Khashab is associate dean of Physical Sciences and Engineering Division and Professor of Chemistry at KAUST – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, given her pioneering contributions in the field of natural sciences and her research in Arab universities.

“Today we announce the winner of the Arab Minds Award in natural sciences, Professor Nevin Khashab, a researcher and academic who inspires a new generation of young scientists in the Arab world and transforms research into advanced innovations in medicine, advanced industries, nanotechnology and sustainable agriculture,” said the Ruler of Dubai.

“Scientific achievement is the basis of civilizational development. We want to preserve scientists, empower them, honor them, celebrate their achievements and provide them with the space they need to transform their ideas and research into reality. Resuming the region’s contribution to human civilization is a comprehensive project and a strategic commitment that focuses on the Arab citizen capable of achievement, creativity and excellence in science and knowledge,” he added.

Khashab is exploring the new opportunities that nano capsules and devices can provide in drugs, gene therapies, medical diagnosis and industries, given their sturdiness, durability and superior thermal resistance.

Khashab is currently experimenting with carbon nanotubes characterized with their exceptional rigidity and strength, as well as electronic properties. She is also testing applications of carbon tubes in smart membranes. Khashab also collaborated on designing smart materials used in biomedical systems based on molecule assemblies at the nanoscale using non-covalent interactions.

The applications of the scientific innovations and smart materials developed by Khashab are diverse, including medical in the fields of sensing and drug, therapeutic and surgical delivery; industrial as in nanocomposites and others; and environmental in sustainable agriculture solutions and platforms.

Mohammad Al Gergawi, chairman of the Committee leading Great Arab Minds, congratulated Khashab on the phone, hailing her contributions in natural sciences and its pioneering research that opened new horizons in the uses of ultra-fine nanomaterials for medical and pharmaceutical purposes and advanced technology applications.

The initiative aims to promote the reverse migration of Arab minds and keep them in the Arab world by celebrating, honoring and highlighting their achievements.

The competition received thousands of nominations in its six categories: engineering and technology, medicine, economics, literature and natural sciences, arts, architecture, and design.

The Great Arab Minds Awards’ winners announced so far are: Dr. Hani Negm from Saudi Arabia in Medicine, Professor Fadel Adib from Lebanon in Engineering and Technology, Dr. Muhammad el-Erian in economics, and Professor Niveen Khashab in natural sciences. The winners in the two remaining categories will be announced later.

source/content: english.aawsat.com / Alsharq Al-Awsat (headline edited)

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Lebanese Prof. Niveen Mohammad Ali Khashab. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

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LEBANON

EGYPTIAN-AMERICAN : Freeze-frame: U of A researchers led by Physicist Prof. Mohammed Hassan develop World’s Fastest Microscope that can see electrons in motion

Imagine owning a camera so powerful it can take freeze-frame photographs of a moving electron – an object traveling so fast it could circle the Earth many times in a matter of a second. Researchers at the University of Arizona have developed the world’s fastest electron microscope that can do just that.

They believe their work will lead to groundbreaking advancements in physics, chemistry, bioengineering, materials sciences and more.

“When you get the latest version of a smartphone, it comes with a better camera,” said Mohammed Hassan, associate professor of physics and optical sciences. “This transmission electron microscope is like a very powerful camera in the latest version of smart phones; it allows us to take pictures of things we were not able to see before – like electrons. With this microscope, we hope the scientific community can understand the quantum physics behind how an electron behaves and how an electron moves.”

Hassan led a team of researchers in the departments of physics and optical sciences that published the research article “Attosecond electron microscopy and diffraction” in the Science Advances journal. Hassan worked alongside Nikolay Golubev, assistant professor of physics; Dandan Hui, co-lead author and former research associate in optics and physics who now works at the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Husain Alqattan, co-lead author, U of A alumnus and assistant professor of physics at Kuwait University; and Mohamed Sennary, a graduate student studying optics and physics.

A transmission electron microscope is a tool used by scientists and researchers to magnify objects up to millions of times their actual size in order to see details too small for a traditional light microscope to detect. Instead of using visible light, a transmission electron microscope directs beams of electrons through whatever sample is being studied. The interaction between the electrons and the sample is captured by lenses and detected by a camera sensor in order to generate detailed images of the sample.

Ultrafast electron microscopes using these principles were first developed in the 2000’s and use a laser to generate pulsed beams of electrons. This technique greatly increases a microscope’s temporal resolution – its ability to measure and observe changes in a sample over time. In these ultrafast microscopes, instead of relying on the speed of a camera’s shutter to dictate image quality, the resolution of a transmission electron microscope is determined by the duration of electron pulses.

The faster the pulse, the better the image.

Ultrafast electron microscopes previously operated by emitting a train of electron pulses at speeds of a few attoseconds. An attosecond is one quintillionth of a second. Pulses at these speeds create a series of images, like frames in a movie – but scientists were still missing the reactions and changes in an electron that takes place in between those frames as it evolves in real time. In order to see an electron frozen in place, U of A researchers, for the first time, generated a single attosecond electron pulse, which is as fast as electrons moves, thereby enhancing the microscope’s temporal resolution, like a high-speed camera capturing movements that would otherwise be invisible.

Hassan and his colleagues based their work on the Nobel Prize-winning accomplishments of Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huilliere, who won the Novel Prize in Physics in 2023 after generating the first extreme ultraviolet radiation pulse so short it could be measured in attoseconds.

Using that work as a steppingstone, U of A researchers developed a microscope in which a powerful laser is split and converted into two parts – a very fast electron pulse and two ultra-short light pulses. The first light pulse, known as the pump pulse, feeds energy into a sample and causes electrons to move or undergo other rapid changes. The second light pulse, also called the “optical gating pulse” acts like a gate by creating a brief window of time in which the gated, single attosecond electron pulse is generated. The speed of the gating pulse therefore dictates the resolution of the image. By carefully synchronizing the two pulses, researchers control when the electron pulses probe the sample to observe ultrafast processes at the atomic level.

“The improvement of the temporal resolution inside of electron microscopes has been long anticipated and the focus of many research groups – because we all want to see the electron motion,” Hassan said. “These movements happen in attoseconds. But now, for the first time, we are able to attain attosecond temporal resolution with our electron transmission microscope – and we coined it ‘attomicroscopy.’ For the first time, we can see pieces of the electron in motion.”

source/content: eurekaalert.org / University of Arizona / (headline edited)

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Mohammed Hassan, associate professor of physics and optical sciences, let a group of researchers in developing the first transmission electron microscope powerful enough to capture images of electrons in motion.

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AMERICAN / EGYPTIAN

JORDANIAN Academic Omar Yaghi wins ‘2024 Arab Genius Minds Award’

 Jordanian academic Omar Yaghi, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has been awarded the 2024 Arab Genius Minds Award in the Natural Sciences category for his pioneering work in reticular chemistry.

Yaghi is celebrated for his transformative innovations in designing and synthesising metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs), the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

These frameworks address critical global challenges in energy storage, water harvesting, and environmental sustainability.

His research portfolio includes over 300 peer-reviewed papers, which have collectively garnered more than 250,000 citations, underscoring the “far-reaching” impact of his work.

Since 2012, Yaghi has held the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair in Chemistry at UC Berkeley. 

His contributions to reticular chemistry have “revolutionised” the ability to assemble molecular building blocks into highly porous structures with applications in gas storage, catalysis, and drug delivery, among others, yielding significant economic and environmental advancements.

The Arab Genius Minds Award, launched by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, honours achievements by Arab scientists and innovators across six key categories essential for the region’s developmental and cultural progress.

source/content: jordantimes.com (headline edited)

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pix: source: wikipedia

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JORDAN

OMANI Researcher Dr Huda Mubarak Al Dai’ree Wins ‘ALECSO Innovation Award for Young Researchers’

The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) announced that Omani researcher Dr. Huda Mubarak Al Dai’ree won the “ALECSO Innovation Award for Young Researchers” due to her active role in promoting green economy.

The research that won the award was titled “Role of government school principals and teachers in endorsing green economy in education and activating it as one of the objectives of Oman Vision 2024.”

The award reflects ALECSO’s keenness on inspiring and supporting innovative Arab researchers who excel in the fields of technology and scientific applications. The award is an initiative undertaken by ALECSO to spread the culture of research and innovation among Arab youth.

source/content: omannews.gov.om

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OMAN

TUNISIAN-CANADIAN: Dr Myriam Khalfallah, Fisheries Scientist – University of British Columbia (UBC) Alum pushing for truly global fisheries science

When Dr. Myriam Khalfallah arrived in Vancouver from Tunisia in 2013, she had just earned a bachelor’s degree as an agronomic engineer specializing in fisheries and environment at the National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia (INAT), the University of Carthage. She visited UBC in hopes of meeting Dr. Daniel Pauly, the internationally recognized fisheries scientist—Dr. Khalfallah had used his methods during her engineering practicum work and wanted to meet one of her research inspirations.

The two met, speaking in French, one of Dr. Pauly’s native tongues, before switching to English. He then asked if Dr. Khalfallah mastered scientific Arabic, as Tunisian universities and research institutions are usually French speaking. She did. It turned out that Dr. Pauly needed someone who spoke all three languages to collect fisheries data from Arabic-speaking countries. Dr. Khalfallah landed the job.

“That was the start of the whole thing,” she recalls. “Daniel said, if you do well on this project, maybe I’ll take you as a student. I went back to Tunisia and applied for a work permit and my whole life changed.”

Similarly to most economically developing countries, fisheries data from North Africa, the southern Mediterranean, and the Arabian Peninsula is not always accessible to the international scientific community, notably due to language barriers, publication costs, and funding. Data does exist, but finding it and leveraging it for research takes language skills and to a certain extent a strong personal network. Dr. Khalfallah had both. Her work went well and Dr. Pauly accepted her as a graduate student.

But there was a problem. During her undergraduate studies in Tunisia, a revolution was ignited against the country’s dictatorship. Dr. Khalfallah had been the elected student representative and ombudsperson at her university.

“Tunisia was living under a strict dictatorship at the time,” Myriam says. “We had no right to speak up. The internet was almost fully censored, as were most of the media. Journalists were jailed. It was really awful”.

“I was involved with the demonstrations and doing my best to defend student and human rights. Some professors didn’t understand the role of the student representative and ombudsperson. When I told my professors about the changes that the students wanted, some thought that I was individually calling for change. Obviously, there can be retaliation—when I applied to UBC, my relationships back home made it difficult for me to get into another university.”

Due to her low grades, notably due to the revolution, UBC rejected Dr. Khalfallah’s initial application to graduate school. So Dr. Pauly stepped in.

“Daniel wrote letters for me, as did the dean of my previous university, and a few Tunisian professors, telling UBC they should give me a chance because what happened in Tunisia made things very difficult for everyone.”

The letters of support had the desired effect. Dr. Khalfallah began work on her Master’s of Science degree at UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, where she carried on reconstructing fisheries catch data from Arabic-speaking countries, estimating the amount of unreported catch—fish that are caught and not officially accounted for by official statistics.

“Methods used in Western countries aren’t always applicable in the rest of the world,” Dr. Khalfallah notes. “But now there are increasingly newer methods, such as those we use at our research unit, the Sea Around Us , that makes the most of data that is usually overlooked. An interesting part of this work involves collaborating with scientists from all over the world and bridging the gap between data-rich and data-poor regions.”

As her research progressed, she and Dr. Pauly realized that her initial plan—a 17-nation study—was too big for a master’s thesis. So Dr. Khalfallah applied to fast track her research directly to a PhD which required good grades, publications, and strong references.

She defended her thesis on March 26, 2020—the second week of the COVID lockdown when UBC shifted all defenses to Zoom for the first time—and graduated with a PhD in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Studies. After graduation Dr. Khalfallah followed through with post doctorate research, also at UBC, working online to unravel the effects of foreign fishing fleets and aquaculture on West African fisheries.

“Like many scientists then, I was unable to get funding to extend my postdoc as a lot of science funding was going towards medical research and stopping COVID” she says. “Some friends of mine who knew the author Margaret Atwood kindly told her about my postdoc and asked if she knew of anyone who could fund my research. And she offered to do it! She was amazing.”

Dr. Khalfallah currently works with the NGO FHI360 as a marine climate change specialist on the project Sharing Underutilized Resources with Fishers and Farmers (SURF). This project supports Tunisia’s efforts to adapt fisheries and agriculture to climate change and is one of the first of its kind in North Africa to be funded by the U.S. Department of State.

“Climate change is impacting North Africa at a very fast pace,” she says. “Water is getting scarcer by the day. Fishes are moving from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, replacing native species. In some regions there are almost no fish anymore because overfishing, climate change, and pollution are a very bad combination.”

“I’m trying to either find other, sustainable livelihoods for artisanal fishers, or find a way for them to fish sustainably. Whatever happens in North Africa due to climate change will happen in the rest of the world at certain points. If we can find a way to help them adapt in one way or another, then those ways could potentially be applied in other places where the climate situation deteriorates.”

Dr. Khalfallah recently became a Canadian citizen and lives in Vancouver when not travelling for work. She was recently selected to be one of the alumni representatives of the Faculty of Science at the 2023 Fall Graduation ceremony, 10 years after she first set foot in Canada and UBC.

“I was quite surprised and honored by the invitation and it was an amazing experience.”

For those who have moved here recently and are starting their research career, she has some advice:

“International students have the stress of surviving, often alone, in new foreign environments, all while successfully completing their studies and research; and sometimes it is very difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But I want to say that the light is there. Be persistent and ask for help when needed. Great things are achieved in small steps. Think about just doing one step at a time, and when you look back, you’ll see that you have actually achieved a lot without even realizing it!”

source/content: science.ubc.ca (headline edited)

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Myriam Khalfallah, PhD 2020

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CANADIAN / TUNISIAN

MOROCCO : Father of the Lithium Battery: Rachid Yazami Honored at International Forum

From a young Moroccan dreamer to a world-renowned inventor, Rachid Yazami’s pioneering spirit and lithium battery breakthrough have powered a global technological revolution.

Renowned Moroccan scientist and inventor Rachid Yazami was honored this week for his scientific achievements, particularly his pioneering work on lithium-ion batteries, at the International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2024) held in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

The IGCF, held from September 4-5 under the theme “Agile Governments: Innovative Communication,” brought together over 250 speakers to discuss the key opportunities and challenges facing governments and populations in the 21st century.

Its wide range of panels discussed topics from information warfare and the talent-driven economy to the digital future and the impact of innovative communication on governments’ ability to achieve broad development goals.

In a statement to the Moroccan News Agency (MAP), Yazami described this tribute as a source of pride and honor for Morocco and a “recognition of my invention of the lithium battery that I made when I was 26 years old.”

A journey of scientific discovery

Yazami’s fascination with science began at a young age. “I actually had a strong interest in science from a very early age. A significant event happened in my life around age 11. One of my teachers pointed at me and declared, ‘Rachid, you will be a chemist!’” he recounted in an interview with VinFuture Prize.

This prediction came true when Yazami was admitted to the Grenoble Institute of Technology in France, where he received his engineering degree in 1978. Just a year later, at the age of 26, he made his groundbreaking discovery of the graphite anode, a key component in lithium-ion batteries.

“It was an absolutely unforgettable day in my life,” Yazami said of the moment he first successfully intercalated lithium into graphite, causing it to change color from black to gold. “It felt like alchemy, converting black to gold.”

The impact of the graphite anode

Yazami’s invention of the graphite anode has had a profound impact on the development and proliferation of lithium-ion batteries. “In 2019, 10 billion batteries were produced worldwide. Ninety-eight per cent used the anode. Every cell phone, electric car, storage has my anode,” he noted in an interview with The Register.

The global anode material market is predicted to grow to $10 billion by 2025, with the anode estimated to account for 10 to 15 percent of the total cost of a lithium-ion battery.

Despite the immense commercial success of his invention, Yazami lamented a missed opportunity for his home country.

“If this company in France said, ‘Oh, we think it may be improved, we have no evidence, but maybe it’s interesting, let’s file a patent that doesn’t cost as much money.’ I think it will have brought something between $100-150 billion. Only the invention of the graphite anode,” he said, referring to a French company that passed on the chance to patent his discovery in the early 1980s.

The future of battery technology

The future belongs to clean electrical energy, Yazami asserted in his speech during the opening session of the IGCF 2024, citing the progress made in lithium-ion batteries due to significant advances in the field.

These advancements include improved safety measures in high-temperature zones, reducing charging time to less than 20 minutes, increasing the range of electric vehicles, and extending battery life.

Yazami highlighted the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries in the international market, which is expected to reach a capacity of 4,700 GWh/h, worth more than four trillion dollars by 2030.

This latest prize comes as the Moroccan scientist continues to push the boundaries of battery technology. His company, KVI, recently developed a new fast-charging technology that can fully charge a high-density battery in just ten minutes, seven times faster than a Tesla.

“The target is to go to 300 [watt hours per kilogram]. To my knowledge there is no 300 watt hour per kilogram on the market — not yet. There are some prototypes, but when you increase the energy density there are some problems with life and safety of battery,” Yazami explained, highlighting the challenges and trade-offs in battery development.

Safety is also a major concern for Yazami. “We can’t prevent fire in extreme situations, but at least we can have signs before it happens,” he said, proposing the idea of a sensor that measures battery expansion due to heat and alerts the user well in advance of any potential issues.

Looking to the future, Yazami predicted the rise of electric airplanes for personal use within the next 20 to 30 years and a shift in battery manufacturing to Europe. “Currently the EV market is in the EU, and the manufacturing is in China,” he observed. “That’s a problem.”

source/content: moroccoworldnews.com (headline edited)

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Rachid Yazami, honored for pioneering lithium battery invention.

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MOROCCO

YEMEN: Sana’a University honors leading scientists Drs. Tariq AlShami, Melhem AlHabouri & Ali AlMuntasir among top global researchers

 Sana’a University celebrated on Wednesday the achievements of three of its scientists, recognizing them for their positions among the top two percent of researchers globally, as listed by Stanford University.

Dr. Tariq al-Shami, an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics, received a certificate of appreciation and a cash award of one million Y.R for being ranked first in the field of most cited researchers throughout his career, maintaining this position for the fourth consecutive year.

Dr. Melhem al-Habouri, a faculty member at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, was honored with a certificate and 750,000 Y.R for securing third place among the most cited researchers in the sub-field of Medical Biochemistry and in the broader category of Clinical Medicine.

Dr. Ali al-Muntasir, from the College of Education and Applied Sciences, also received recognition, earning a certificate and 500,000 Y.R for his third-place ranking among Sana’a University scientists and eleventh among researchers from Yemeni universities in the field of Physics and Astronomy.

During the ceremony, Dr. al-Qassim Abbas, rector of Sana’a University, commended the honorees for their exceptional contributions to scientific research. He announced that this recognition will become an annual tradition aimed at fostering scientific advancement within the university, with aspirations to elevate its standing among the world’s leading research institutions.

Dr. al-Qassim emphasized the university’s commitment to investing in scientific research and publishing, which had previously been overlooked. He noted that over the past four years, the university has provided grants to over 700 teaching assistants to enhance their research capabilities.

He also highlighted the importance of legislative measures to encourage publication and innovation among researchers, asserting that a focus on scientific inquiry is essential for national progress, especially in today’s technologically driven landscape.

In response, Dr. Ali al-Muntasir articulated that the honor signifies a pivotal moment in their scientific careers, reflecting years of dedication. He urged for the establishment of specialized research centers in various fields, including renewable energy and artificial intelligence, to further advance Yemen’s scientific endeavors and self-sufficiency.

source/content: saba.ye (headline edited)

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YEMEN

ALGERIA : M’Sila University Professors Among the Top Scientists Worldwide

This remarkable achievement underscores the university’s leadership in scientific research, affirming its pivotal role in Algeria’s innovation landscape and commitment to academic excellence. The recognition of these five esteemed scholars not only highlights their individual contributions but also elevates M’Sila University as a beacon of scientific advancement on the global stage.

Five distinguished professors from Mohamed Boudiaf University in M’Sila have earned recognition in the 2024 Stanford University ranking of the top 2% of scientists worldwide. This prestigious classification highlights their contributions to research and places them among a total of 68 Algerian researchers honored in this global assessment.

M’Sila University stands out as the leading Algerian institution, boasting the highest number of researchers included in this elite ranking. This achievement underscores the university’s commitment to advancing scientific research and fostering academic excellence, positioning it as a vital contributor to Algeria’s development and innovation landscape.

Professor Amar Boudellaa, the university director, emphasized the significance of this accomplishment as a reflection of the institution’s dedication to scientific inquiry. He affirmed the university’s ongoing support for researchers, inventors, and start-up founders, aligning with the vision outlined by the Minister of Higher Education.

The five notable researchers recognized in this ranking are:

Professor Bouarissa Nadir (Natural Sciences/Physics)

Professors Berri Saadi and Maireche Abdelmadjid (Faculty of Sciences)

Professor Chouder Aissa (Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Technology)

Hocini Abdesselam (Electronics, Faculty of Technology)

Since its inception in 1885, Stanford University has published the Top 2% Scientist ranking annually since 2020, based on comprehensive studies conducted by its researchers. This accolade not only celebrates individual achievements but also enhances the reputation of M’Sila University as a hub for scientific advancement in Algeria.

source/content: dzair.tube.dz (headline edited)

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ALGERIA

SUDAN: The Sudanese scientist Ashwag Mukhtar is carrying out a meta-analysis at CNIO on bladder cancer in Spain and North African countries 

Ashwag Mukhtar is working as a visiting researcher at the National Cancer Research Centre thanks to the Ellas Investigan programme organised by Fundación Mujeres por África

“It will be the most important experience of my life, I am now part of CNIO,” says Sudanese scientist Ashwag Mukhtar, assistant professor with the Department of Histopathology and Cytology at the University of Alneelain (Khartoum), referring to her time at the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), where she has been a visiting researcher linked to the Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Group of this centre since last December. 

Ashwag Mohammed Mukhtar is one of the African scientists selected by Fundación Mujeres por África to take part in its Ellas Investigan programme,  which promotes stays in Spain for senior African women researchers  from affiliated scientific institutes. The stays are for six months and allow these researchers to carry out, in collaboration with these institutes, projects previously selected by the programme’s Scientific Committee. In this case, funding was provided by Exolum.

The Sudanese scientist aims to compare bladder cancer in Spain and North African countries. She will compare and contrast the environmental factors causing this cancer and genetic diversities in order to provide important findings and data regarding this type of cancer and its treatments.

Holder of a PhD from the University of Alneelain, Ashwag Mohammed Mukhtar explains what her work will entail during her time in Spain: “On the one hand, I am conducting a meta-analysis, focusing on reanalysing the treatment of bladder cancer, genetic mutation, and mortality, and comparing it with data from the Spanish Bladder Cancer Foundation. On the other hand, I intend to determine the expression of certain genes that can predict the type of chemotherapy. We are doing this on Sudanese tissue samples and comparing our findings with Spanish tissue samples.”

As well as science, her other passions are music, meditation, and nature walks, as she explains in this video. In it, she gives recommendations about the Sudanese music she likes most, including the band AGD Aljalad. “Having the opportunity to work in another country is a very enriching experience, both professionally and personally,” says the scientist.

About Ellas Investigan

Ellas Investigan (Women Researching) is the most important programme promoted by Fundación Mujeres por África in the scientific field and has achieved spectacular growth. Since it was launched in 2014 with five associated research centres, it has grown to more than 20 affiliated centres and has launched seven editions. 

The centres brought into this programme in the last edition are the Barcelona Institute of Material Science (ICMAB); IIS Biodonostia; and INCLIVA, Research Institute of the Clinical Hospital in Valencia. The company Abertis has also been brought on board as a sponsor, which will finance the chosen researcher’s stay at the National Biotechnology Centre on Biodiversity Issues. So far more than a hundred African women scientists have been involved in Ellas Investigan.

About CNIO

CNIO is a Spanish institution dedicated to the research, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. CNIO has obtained accreditation as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence for the third time in a row. It is ranked seventh among the world’s best cancer research centres (according to the Scimago report; Nature Index) and has been named Europe’s leading cancer research centre.

More than 450 scientists work at CNIO to transfer their results quickly and efficiently to Spain’s National Health System and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology market. In recent years, the strand of research devoted to metastasis – responsible for 90% of cancer deaths worldwide – has been strengthened with the incorporation of several fully dedicated research groups. Interdisciplinarity has also been boosted by recruiting computer experts to gain a more in-depth view of the complexity of cancer and to propose new therapeutic hypotheses.

One of the goals at CNIO is to bring science closer to society through initiatives such as CNIO Arte , a project that brings together scientists and artists to create new works of art around scientific research, and  CNIO Friends, a philanthropic platform through which any person, company or association can support cancer research carried out at the Centre, and through which a CNIO Friends International Contracts Programme has been launched to attract research talent.

source/content: cnio.es (headline edited)

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Ashwag Mukhtar. / Laura M. Lombardía. CNIO

Ashwag Mukhtar. Visiting researcher from Sudan. Women for Africa Foundation / source: youtube.com / canalcnio

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SUDAN

YEMEN: Eqbal Dauqan Ph.D : She May Be The Most Unstoppable Scientist In The World

Two years ago, Eqbal Dauqan was going to work in the morning as usual. She’s a biochemistry professor. And was driving on the freeway, when suddenly: “I felt something hit my car, but I didn’t know what it was because I was driving very fast,” she says.

Dauqan reached the parking lot. Got out of the car and looked at the door. What she saw left her speechless.

“A bullet hit the car, just on the door,” she says.

The door had stopped the bullet. And Dauqan was OK. She has no idea where the bullet came from. But it turned out to be an ominous sign of what was to come.

Gender Canyon

Dauqan is a female scientist in what’s possibly the hardest place on Earth to be a woman: Yemen.

The World Economic Forum ranks Yemen as the worst country for women’s rights. In Yemen, many women can’t leave the house without permission from a male relative.

“If she goes out with her husband or brother, that’s OK. But not by herself. ” Dauqan says. “Not everyone follows this. But this is our culture.”

A culture where two-thirds of women can’t read. About half are married by age 18 — and sometimes as young as age 8.

And then there’s the black veil. Many women in Yemen wear a niqab — a black veil that completely covers their faces, except for a tiny slit across the eyes.

Daquan wears a niqab when she’s in Yemen. She even wore one during her TEDx talk there back in 2014. But she doesn’t wear one in other countries.

“I cover my face [in Yemen] because I respect the culture,” Dauqan says. “I respect the culture.”

She may respect it — but not blindly. For the past decade, Dauqan has burst through glass ceiling after glass ceiling with fearlessness and grace.

Even as a young girl, she was a rebel. “I was a little naughty,” she says with a snicker.

She liked breaking rules. And proving people wrong. So when her parents told her she might not have the smarts to go into science and engineering — like her dad — Eqbal thought: Watch me.

“I told my father, ‘I’ve heard a lot about scientists in chemistry. What is the difference between me and them? So I want to try,” she says.

And she did more than try. She crushed it.

Eqbal won over her father and got his financial support. She was the first among her friends to finish college. Then she got a scholarship to do her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Universiti Kebansaan Malaysia, where she studied the nutritional properties of palm oil.

That led to her writing a popular book about the fruits mentioned in the Holy Quran and their health benefits. For example, Indian Jujube — also known as red dates — are the most cultivated plant in the world and have 20 times more vitamin C than citrus fruit, Eqbal writes in her book.

Next came the prizes. In 2014, Dauqan was named one of the top female scientists in the developing world by the Elsevier Foundation. News programs in the Middle East and in China ran feature stories on her. She became so famous that Al Saeed University made her an assistant professor and head of a department — all this before she’d turned 35. Dauqan was on top of the world.

And then one morning, it was all taken away.

“They were just sleeping”

In March 2015, Dauqan’s hometown of Taiz got pulled into Yemen’s bloody civil war. Planes started flying over head, dropping bombs — even on homes and schools.

“They were bombing my university!” Dauqan exclaims. “They killed some of my students.

“It was really bad. Really bad,” she says. “I’ll show you.”

Dauqan turns to her computer and brings up some photos. On the screen is a photo of several bodies laying flat on the ground. The bodies are covered in white sheets, with only their faces showing.

“This is nine person from my family,” she says. “They were sleeping. And a bomb hit their house. They all died. Nine person from my family.”

A few of the bodies are small.

“Those are two children in our family,” Dauqan adds. “They were just sleeping.”

And then they were gone — Dauqan’s cousins on her father side and their sons and daughters.

“That is why I leave my country,” she says.

“I have to be strong. I want to be strong”

After the bombings began, Dauqan had to stop her research. The university shut down. And it wasn’t safe for her to leave home. She was trapped in a city where snipers target children and bombs fall on mosques, schools and markets.

During one month of 2015, doctors treated more than 4,000 civilians in a Taiz hospital, the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders reported. MSF hospitals have been hit with bombs four times.

Across Yemen, about 10,000 civilians have been killed in the war and more than 40,000 have been wounded. the U.N. reports. More than 370,000 children are now malnourished because they can’t get food.

And then one day, after spending months in hiding, Dauqan had an idea: Maybe her science could get her out of the war.

She started texting her mentor, Aminah Abdullah, a food scientist at the Universiti Kebangsaan in Malaysia. They applied for a special refugee scholarship with the Institute of International Education-Scholar Rescue Fund, based in New York. She got it, and after a few months, she was safe on a plane headed for Malaysia.

Now she’s working to save up money so she can bring her parents and sister to Malaysia. “It’s very difficult,” she says. “But I have to be strong. I want to be strong!”

Dauqan works long hours in labs, continues to publish papers and mentor students. And she has never lost sight of her dreams — even her ultimate dream.

“My dream is to win the Nobel Prize,” Dauqan says with a chuckle. “It is very hard. So I don’t know. “

But Dauqan has already done so much for science — and society. When little girls in the Middle East see photos of Eqbal as a chemist — wearing a head scarf, measuring pH — they don’t need to use their imagination to think: “I could be just like her. I could be a scientist.”

source/content: npr.org (headline edited)

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“In college, I would tell my friends that I wanted to pursue a Ph.D., and they would chuckle and ridicule the idea,” says Eqbal Dauqan, who is an assistant professor at the University Kebangsaan Malaysia at age 36. Born and raised in Yemen, Dauqan credits her “naughty” spirit for her success in a male-dominated culture.Sanjit Das for NPR

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YEMEN