Jasir Jawad is a Research Engineer at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) at Haman Bin Khalifa University, Qatar. His research at QEERI is focused on the operation and supporting maintenance at the advanced MED pilot plant. He is also involved in the operation, maintenance, mathematical modeling and analysis of the Linear Fresnel Collector and Organic Rankine Cycle (LFC-ORC) pilot power plant at the QEERI outside testing facility. Moreover, he is studying advanced water vapor compression using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools.
 
He received his MS degree in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University at Qatar. He earned his bachelor's in Chemical Engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan. 

Dr. Paul Grimshaw is an Associate Professor in Exercise Science at the College of Health and Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Following a PhD in biomedical engineering in 1987 from the University of Salford, UK, he has lectured in biomechanics, anatomy, and research methods for the past 36 years. He has worked at three Universities in the UK (Brunel, Edinburgh, and Exeter) and two in Australia (School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia and School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Adelaide (UoA)) before joining HBKU in 2021. He has also worked at Halmstad University in Sweden.

His research interests include injury prevention/mechanism of injury and sports performance/technology in golf and athletics; low back pain; gait analysis in children and adults and quantitative assessment of human knee instability. At the University of Adelaide, he was the School's Director of Research (2015), Director of Learning and Teaching (2017), Director of Engagement (2018-2020), and the Program Coordinator for the Bachelor of Engineering (mechanical and sports) 4-year undergraduate professional degree (2009-2018), which was the first of its kind within Australia (established in 2008). To date, he has been involved in the authorship of 141 refereed research articles and has successfully graduated with 15 higher degrees by research students (PhD and MS by research).

Dr. Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar is an Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He holds a PhD (funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) from the University of Alberta, where he was awarded The Bacchus Graduate Research Prize for scholarly excellence in international and multicultural education. He was also awarded the University of Alberta President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction, among other awards such as the JDH McFetridge Graduate Scholarship and the Andrew Stewart Memorial Graduate Prize for outstanding accomplishment and potential in pursuit of new knowledge. He has a master’s degree from the University of Baghdad. He also received a master’s degree from California State University in Humanities. His third master's degree was from Lakehead University in English literature, Canada. Dr. Abdul-Jabbar held a postdoctoral fellowship (also funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) at the University of Calgary. His research considers how intercultural communication resonates with educational practices; it explores the convergences of seemingly differing cultures to infuse intercultural dialogue into educational discourse. Prior to joining Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), he was a faculty member at Yorkville University and an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the author of Negotiating Diasporic Identity in Arab-Canadian Students - Double Consciousness, Belonging, and Radicalization (Palgrave, 2019) and Medieval Muslim Philosophers and Intercultural Communication: Towards a Dialogical Paradigm in Education (Routledge, 2023).

Dr. Atef Zekri graduated with a PhD in Physics in 2017 from the University of Oldenburg (Germany). Before joining QEERI as a Post-Doc in April 2018 and then as a Scientist in July 2019, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Energy and Semiconductor research group within the Institute of Physics in the University of Oldenburg (Germany). Atef obtained his Master of Science in Materials Science from Saarland University (Germany) and his Bachelor of Science from Saarland University (Germany) as well as a Bachelor of Engineering from EEIGM (École Européenne D'ingénieurs en Génie des Matériaux, France). His current research interests focus on state-of-the-art electron microscopy across a wide range of materials such as the Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy (SEM/TEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), and Focused Ion Beam (FIB).

Bakhita Rashid Meqbel is a Research Fellow at the Diabetes Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute at Hammad Bin Khalifa University. She received her bachelor's degree in biomedical science and masters in master’s in biomedical science with a major in health management from Qatar University. She got her PhD in biological and biomedical sciences from Hamad Bin Khalifa University in 2022.

She has worked as a Senior Lab Technologist for 10 years at Hamad Medical Corporation in the Department of Medicine and Pathology - Microbiology lab. She then pursued PhD degree working in the cancer field. After obtaining her PhD, she joined QBRI as a Senior Research Associate and was later promoted to Research Fellow.

Dr. Omar Albagha received his PhD scholarship to investigate genetic susceptibility to osteoporosis at the University of Aberdeen. After completing his PhD degree in 2001, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher until 2002, when he was appointed as an Arthritis Research UK lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Genetics of Bone disease at the Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, UK. In 2005, he moved to the University of Edinburgh as a Principal Investigator/Group Leader at the Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine (CGEM). In 2014, he was appointed the Associate Director of the Paget’s Association Centre of Excellence, Edinburgh.

In early 2017, Dr. Albagha joined Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) as a Principal Investigator at the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), and in 2019 he joined the College of Health and Life Sciences at HBKU as a Professor of Genomic and Precision Medicine. His current research focuses on Genomic Medicine, aiming at understanding the genetic determinants of complex diseases with emphasis on Type 2 Diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. He has active collaborations with Qatar Genome Project to investigate genetics of disease-related traits in Qatar. He has published in high impact journals (Nature Genetics, JAMA, Cell Reports) and his work has been featured in news outlets such as the BBC and other international media. Dr. Albagha has received many awards from international organizations, including the European Calcified Tissue Society (ECTS) and the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). He has obtained multiple research grants totaling over US$ 10 million, including the highly prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator fellowship.

Sultan Barakat is a Professor at the College of Public Policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He is a renowned scholar in the study of war-torn societies and their recovery. He has supervised over 20 PhDs in politics and post-war recovery and graduated a generation of MA peacebuilders and reconstruction specialists. Professor Barakat founded and directed the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute from 2016 to 2022 and previously led the post-war reconstruction unit at the University of York from 1993 to 2019.

He has published extensively, with recent books including Russia’s Approach to Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Shelter and Reconstruction after War and Disaster, both released in 2023. With over 30 years of experience, Barakat has worked on conflict management, humanitarian response, and post-conflict recovery, influencing global practices through his publications and advisory roles with organizations like the UN, World Bank, and EU.

He has led evaluations and peace initiatives in various conflict zones, demonstrating his commitment to stability and resilience. His involvement in mediation efforts in Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan highlights his contributions to peacebuilding. Barakat continues to shape discourse in conflict resolution, earning recognition as a leading authority in the field.

Professor Juleen R. Zierath is a leading researcher in metabolic physiology, focusing on the cellular mechanisms underlying insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes and the therapeutic potential of physical exercise. She holds dual professorships: Professor of Clinical Integrative Physiology and Head of the Section of Integrative Physiology in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and Professor of Integrative Physiology and Executive Director of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Zierath's translational research program elucidates the molecular basis of insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes. Her work has revealed impairments along the insulin signaling pathway in skeletal muscle from Type 2 diabetic patients and mapped the exercise-mediated signaling cascades that control glucose metabolism and gene expression, findings with clinical implications, as regular physical activity protects against insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. 

Current research in her laboratory investigates the interactions between circadian rhythms and metabolism, particularly how the timing of exercise and nutrient intake affects metabolic health. Her work explores the temporal dynamics of skeletal muscle responses to exercise, mitochondrial function in diabetes, and how circadian biology can be leveraged for personalized exercise and dietary interventions The overarching goal of her work is to identify and validate molecular targets for pharmacological interventions and develop personalized exercise strategies that improve insulin sensitivity, ultimately alleviating complications and enhancing quality of life for people living with Type 2 diabetes.
 

Camillo Ricordi, MD, FNAI. Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Surgery, Biomedical Engineering, Microbiology and Immunology, Director of the Cell Transplant Center and Director Emeritus at the University of Miami, Diabetes Research Institute. 

A leading scientist in diabetes cure-focused research, cell transplantation and regenerative medicine, Ricordi is well-known for inventing the method to isolate large numbers of pancreatic islets and for performing the first series of successful clinical islet allotransplants in diabetes. The procedure is now used worldwide. Ricordi led the team that performed the first successful extra-hepatic islet transplants, using a bioengineered endocrine pancreas implanted in the abdominal cavity of recipients with diabetes. He chaired for over a decade the consortium that successfully completed, the NIH-funded, FDA Phase 3 multicenter trials. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the stem cell-derived islet transplant trials (Vertex; VX-880), of the first trial (Vertex; VX-264) without any anti-rejection drug. 

In addition to diabetes cure-focused research, Ricordi’s interests include the prevention and treatment of viral, autoimmune and chronic age-related diseases, to prolong a healthy lifespan (www.Fit4Healthspan.org). 

He led the international team that successfully completed the first FDA-approved RCT to treat the most severe cases of COVID-19, with mesenchymal stromal cell infusions that resulted in 91% patient survival (100% in subjects with diabetes or with less than 85 years old) at one month, compared to 42% survival in the control group. 

Over 100 honors and awards include the Nessim Habif World Prize in Surgery (University of Geneva) for developing a technology that significantly contributed to the advancement of a surgical field, and the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award (ADA). In 2009, he was Knighted by the President of the Republic of Italy, and in 2018 he was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors USA for outstanding inventions that made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society. He served on the Italian Supreme Council of Health, and in 2023 he was awarded the TaoBuk Da Vinci Award (co-shared with Nobel Prize Yamanaka and Semenza) and the Venice Golden Lion Award.

Ricordi is also President of the Board of ISMETT (Mediterranean Institute of Transplantation and Advanced Therapies) since 2004 and was appointed President of Fondazione Ri.MED by the Italian Prime Minister, for the 2013-2017 term, successfully completing the partnership with ISMETT for the creation of an unprecedented biotechnology center linked to ISMETT, to foster clinical translation of novel therapies (http://www.fondazionerimed.eu/content/progetto-CBRB.aspx).

Founding president of The Cure Alliance and Chairman of the Diabetes Research Institute Federation, to promote cure-focused research at leading institutions worldwide, Ricordi serves as a consultant and/or on the board of advisors of several non-profit foundations, and government agencies, including the QBRI (Qatar Foundation), and on several venture capital, investment funds, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Ricordi contributed over 1,170 publications, that received over 54,000 citations, has 112 H-index and 28 patents awarded.

In 2022 he published the Oscar Bestseller Mondadori book “IL CODICE DELLA LONGEVITÀ SANA” now available also in its English edition: “THE HEALTHSPAN CODE” (Amazon.com).

Maria Grazia Spillantini is Professor of Molecular Neurology in the Clinical School of the University of Cambridge. Prof. Spillantini’s lab researches the cause of diseases like Parkinson's and Frontotemporal dementia, as well as Alzheimer's disease with the aim to identify targets for therapy.

After receiving a Laurea in Biological Sciences, summa cum Laude from the University of Florence, she pursued research at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology of the University of Florence, at the Unité de Neurobiologie of the INSERM in Paris and at the Molecular Neurobiology Unit of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge. In 1987, Prof. Spillantini moved to the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where she obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University working with Michel Goedert and Sir Aaron Klug with whom later she continued research as a postdoctoral fellow.

In 1996, Prof. Spillantini moved to the Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair and in 2014 to the Clifford Allbutt Building, both in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences of the University of Cambridge. Her group worked on the molecular neuropathology of diseases characterized by tau and alpha-synuclein aggregates. She identified alpha-synuclein as the main component of the filaments that form the Lewy bodies in Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies and described one of the first mutations in the MAPT gene leading to frontotemporal dementia and Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17.

Prof. Spillantini is a member of Scientific Advisory panels in institutions in Europe and USA and is Chair of the Clifford Allbutt Building of Cambridge University. Prof. Spillantini has been awarded several international prizes including the Potamkin Prize of the American Academy of Neurology, the Cotsias Prize of the Spanish Neurological Society, the Van Andel Prize for outstanding achievements in Parkinson’s disease research, and the 2017 Camillo Golgi Medal from the Camillo Golgi Foundation. In 2019, she received the honor of Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy (Ufficiale OSI), and, in 2020, she obtained the European Grand Prix de la Fondation Recherche Alzheimer, Paris.

Prof. Spillantini was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, London in 2010, Fellow of the Royal Society, London in 2013, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2019. She is Professorial Fellow at Clare Hall and a life member of Peterhouse College, Cambridge.