L'Oréal-UNESCO celebrates the achievements of emerging women scientists
Inspiring Arab women on their day... on the podium to celebrate "Expo Dubai"
Sarah Al-Amiri: "The Arab region's richness in scientific and research talents consolidates more growing opportunities for women in this vital field."
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On the global platform "Expo 2020 Dubai", the L'Oréal-UNESCO Prize celebrated 14 promising Arab scientists, who are shining models in research, life sciences, the environment, physics, mathematics and computer, in conjunction with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which falls on February 11.
The ceremony, which was organized at the Dubai Exhibition Center at Expo 2020 Dubai, hosted a number of personalities to discuss how the rising women scientists can overcome barriers.
Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chairperson of the Emirates Scholars Council, affirmed that "supporting prominent female scientists and researchers today plays an important role in inspiring future generations to work and research and make more efforts to advance their societies and contribute to the development of a knowledge-based economy."
She said, "The Arab region's richness in scientific and research talents consolidates more growing opportunities for women in this vital field. In the UAE, we have great achievements in supporting women working in scientific and research fields. Emirati women have made a qualitative leap thanks to the support, encouragement and care of the leadership, which they gave All the attention and provided it with all the elements of excellence and distinction.”
She noted the role and importance of this award in supporting women's contributions in vital sectors, such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics and others.
The panel discussions, which were organized as part of the celebrations of the honorees, included the Permanent Representative of the UAE to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Dr. Nawal Al Hosani, Director of the UNESCO Office in Doha and representative of the Office for the Arab States of the Gulf and Yemen, Dr. Anna Paolini, and Founder and Executive Director of the Young Engineer Foundation , Rana Shmaitli.
The ceremony honoring Arab researchers is part of the “L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Global Science” program, which has celebrated more than 3,900 scientific researchers and 122 winners from more than 110 countries since its launch in 1998.
Honor List
The list of postdoctoral researchers included:
■ Dr. Ghada Deshak (UAE): for her research on the discovery of new materials and structures through photonics to develop the speed, capacity and accuracy of traditional techniques.
■ Dr. Hind Al-Qadri (Kuwait): for her research on the development of oral fluids as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for early detection and management of COVID-19 and other inflammatory diseases.
■ Dr. Nora Adam Mohamed (Qatar): for her research on developing non-traditional and innovative therapeutic tools for the prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
■ Dr. Engy Abdallah (Egypt): for her research on overcoming receptor mutations in targeted therapy for cancer.
■ Dr. Irene Gabriel (Egypt): for her research on sugarcane cutlery manufacturing.
■ Dr. Heba Al-Zaben (Jordan): for her research on remote thermal sensing to monitor ecosystem health.
■ Dr. Heba Rajha (Lebanon): for her research on raising the value of food waste, by including the polyphenols contained in grape skins and encapsulating them with nanoparticles in various cosmetics.
■ Dr. Nermin Al-Madani (Palestine): for her research on immunosuppressive proteins in the environment of glioblastoma to improve the tumor's response to immunotherapy.
■ Dr. Waad Saftali (Syria): for her research on the study of the evolution of galaxies throughout the history of the universe.
The list included a group of doctoral researchers:
■ Halima Al Naqbi (UAE): for her research on strengthening the current organ transplantation system to include Arab ethnic groups.
■ Areej Yahya (Qatar): for her research on identifying factors driving the widening gender gap in personality traits for further evaluation of current and future gender policies.
■ Rachel Njeim (Lebanon): for her research on the contribution of “Nutosis” to kidney disease in diabetic patients.
■ Sama Hassan Ali Rahmatullah (Iraq): for her research on combating pollution caused by the genetic variation of plants associated with soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.
■ Sarah Abdelkader (Egypt): for her research on sustainable on-site treatment methods for treating agricultural wastewater for reuse in irrigation.