Dr. Fahad Khan is an academic, researcher, and clinical psychologist specializing in the integration of faith and mental wellness through the field of Islamic psychology. His professional work is dedicated to advancing mental health within Muslim communities. He has served as the deputy director at Khalil Center, the largest provider of Muslim mental health services in the West, where he supervised clinical and research work.

Dr. Khan’s background includes teaching at various academic institutions in the United States. He is a fellow of the International Association of Islamic Psychology (IAIP) and actively contributes to the field by serving on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals. His work has been recognized with multiple awards. He is a recipient of the American Psychological Foundation’s 2025 Division 29 Early Career Award, and the American Psychological Association's (APA) 2021 Early Career Psychologist Champion and 2020 Early Career Achievement Awards. He has served on numerous committees and divisions of the APA, most recently representing the organization at the United Nations in 2024.

Dr. Zhihe Lu is an Assistant Professor at the College of Science and Engineering. His research focuses on machine learning and computer vision. He has published 19 technical papers in leading venues, including CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICML, ACM MM, and top journals such as IEEE TIP and PR.

He was a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore, working with Prof. Xinchao Wang, before joining HBKU. He finished his PhD at the University of Surrey under the supervision of Prof. Tao Xiang and Prof. Yi-Zhe Song. He also completed his master's degree at the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, supervised by Prof. Ran He and Prof. Zhaoxiang Zhang.

He was also fortunate to work and collaborate with Dr. Xiatian Zhu, Prof. Timothy Hospedales, Dr. Da Li, Dr. Sen He, and Prof. Shuicheng Yan.

Dr. Maryam Saifaldeen is a Research Fellow at the Translational Oncology Research Center at QBRI. With her academic journey supported by the Qatar Research Leadership Program (QRLP), Maryam Saifaldeen earned a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Southampton, an MRes in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences from Imperial College of London, and a PhD in Genomics and Precision Medicine from Hamad Bin Khalifa University. This multidisciplinary academic training provided a strong foundation in molecular biology, functional genomics, and biomedical research.

Her doctoral research focused on CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing, leading to the identification of the E3 ubiquitin ligase beta-TrCP1 as a novel regulator of cellular lipid metabolism. Her PhD work contributed to two first-author publications and one co-authored review article.

Dr. Maryam Saifaldeen’s growing research interests lie in understanding how metabolic rewiring of tumor and immune cells influences therapy response, particularly in triple-negative breast cancer. She is committed to contributing to Qatar’s national cancer research efforts by promoting translational science, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovation-driven discovery.

Dr. Hooman Keshavarzi is the Program Director and Assistant Professor of Islamic Psychology at the College of Islamic Studies. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and holds a Doctorate and Master's in Clinical Psychology and a Bachelor of Science – specialist psychology track/minor in Islamic Studies. He is also a visiting scholar at Ibn Haldun University (Turkey) and an adjunct faculty member at Hartford Seminary.

Dr. Keshavarzi is the founding director of the Khalil Center, the first Islamically-oriented professional community mental wellness center and the largest provider of Muslim mental healthcare in North America. He is also a senior fellow at the International Association for Islamic Psychology (IAIP), conducting research on topics related to Islam, Muslims, and mental health. Dr. Keshavarzi is an international public speaker and trainer providing education on the intersection of Islamic studies and behavioral health.

Dr. Vladimir Katanaev is the Acting Executive Director of Qatar Biomedical Research Institute and the Scientific Director of the Translational Oncology Research Center at the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute. He leads efforts to bridge basic, translational, and clinical research, focusing on developing targeted therapies for cancer patients. He is committed to advancing the understanding of fundamental cellular mechanisms, exploring how their dysfunction contributes to disease, and translating this knowledge into innovative therapeutic strategies. Dr. Katanaev has made significant contributions to the field through his research on signal transduction pathways and their implications in cancer and other diseases. His work has been widely recognized and published in leading scientific journals.

Jouke Jan Hottenga is a Senior Scientist at Qatar Biomedical Research Institute specializing in bioinformatics, gene identification, and population genomics. His work focuses on the genetic factors influencing health behaviors, biomarkers, and metabolic and neurological diseases. He has made significant contributions to genetics, with research published in high-impact journals. His expertise includes genome-wide association studies and meta-analyses.

With strong skills in bioinformatics and big data analysis, he processes and interprets complex genetic data using advanced computational techniques. His work supports genetic research by ensuring accurate and reproducible data analysis. His dedication to understanding genetic mechanisms has established him as a key figure in personalized medicine and public health.

Dr. Hasan Kurban is an Assistant Professor at the College of Science and Engineering. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Computer Science and Data Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, and an Editor for Nature Scientific Reports.

Dr. Kurban earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science with a minor in Statistics from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, in 2017. His research spans artificial intelligence, deep learning, software engineering, graph theory, and large-scale data analytics, with applications in diverse fields, including computational materials science, biology, sports analytics, education, public transportation, finance, and medicine.

Dr. Moin is a Lecturer at the College of Science and Engineering. Previously, he worked as a Research Associate and Technical Laboratory Coordinator at Texas A&M University at Qatar. He was honored as the Best Researcher at TAMUQ for the year 2010–11 and received the Star Award for 2022–23.

Dr. Moin has authored over 70 articles in various international conferences and journals. He holds the distinction of being an IEEE Senior Member. Dr. Moin’s professional interests are in the field of power electronics, electric drives, and multi-phase converters, with a specific focus on matrix converters. He is also involved in AI and machine learning. Presently, his h-index is 19, and his i10-index is 46.

Haitham Abu-Rub is a Professor at the College of Science and Engineering. He received two PhDs, one in Electrical Engineering from Gdansk University of Technology, Poland, in 1995, and another in Humanities from Gdansk University, Poland, in 2004.

Abu-Rub has research and teaching experience at many universities in several countries, including Qatar, Poland, Palestine, USA, and Germany. He served for five years as the Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Program at Texas A&M University at Qatar and for ten years as the Managing Director of the Smart Grid Center at the same university.

Abu-Rub is the recipient of many national and international awards and recognitions, including the Fulbright and Alexander von Humboldt scholarships. His research group includes many PhD students and postdoctoral fellows.

Abu-Rub has published over 600 journal and conference papers, three patents, eight books, and eight book chapters. He has offered numerous keynote speeches at many conferences, training courses for industry engineers, and special courses for students.

Abu-Rub is a Fellow of IEEE and Co-Editor in Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

Dr. Fella Lahmar is an Assistant Professor of Education whose research bridges comparative education, Islamic educational thought and practice, and decolonial methodologies. Her work examines how education reform and curriculum politics shape learners’ ethical and aesthetic formation, leadership, and inclusion in Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority contexts, with particular attention to knowledge hierarchies and culturally grounded pedagogies.

She leads competitively funded research spanning education, accessibility, and indigenous heritage. As Leading Principal Investigator on a Qatar Research, Development and Innovation Council (QRDI)–funded project on Inclusive Islamic Education for Deaf learners, she is developing and evaluating scalable, Deaf-centred models of accessible Islamic learning. She is also Principal Investigator for Higher Education and Accessibility in Qatar, a Ministry-authorised, sector-wide study mapping institutional accessibility and accommodations to inform a practical national roadmap. In addition, she led the Algeria strand of the UKRI–AHRC-funded Decolonising Education for Peace in Africa (DEPA) programme, examining indigenous arts and heritage as resources for educational transformation within a 14-country collaboration.

Dr Lahmar is a Senior Fellow (SFHEA) and Fellow (FHEA) of Advance HE (UK), and holds a PhD in Education and an MA in Educational Research Methods from the University of Nottingham, and an MA in Islamic Studies from Loughborough University.