Dr. Chunliang Yang is a Research Fellow in the Diabetes Research Center at the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI). She earned her Ph.D. in Immunology from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), under the mentorship of Prof. Cong-Yi Wang, a leading expert in diabetes immunology. During her doctoral and master's training at HUST, Dr. Yang specialized in dissecting the immunometabolic mechanisms underlying type 1 and type 2 diabetes, with a particular focus on the pathogenic roles of T cells and macrophages in disease progression.

Dr. Yang is highly skilled in establishing murine models of diabetes and employing advanced techniques in cellular immunology and metabolic phenotyping to investigate disease pathogenesis. Her productive research has led to multiple first-author publications in high-impact journals, including Molecular Therapy, in which her work has elucidated novel mechanisms involving the PDIA3 chaperone function and interferon regulatory factors in diabetes.

At QBRI, Dr. Yang continues to pursue her research interests at the intersection of immunology and metabolic diseases. She aims to further unravel the cellular crosstalk and immunometabolic pathways that contribute to diabetes and related metabolic disorders, with the ultimate goal of identifying novel therapeutic strategies.

Dr Alexei Abrahams blends social science and computer science methods to study asymmetric conflict and information warfare, with particular application to the Palestinian struggle. He is the author of Social Media Exposed, an upcoming book on how to archive and analyze social media data in the public interest. He is also the author of numerous research papers, published at outlets such as the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, Political Science Research & Methods, and the International Journal of Communications. Professor Abrahams holds a PhD in Economics from Brown University, and before joining HBKU was the digital research team lead at McGill University’s Canadian Media Ecosystem Observatory.
 

Dr. Marwa AbdelGawad joined HBKU as an Assistant Professor of Practice. She earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, where her research was focused on examining the impact of microstructure on the corrosion response and mechanical integrity of magnesium alloys used in biomedical applications, specifically orthopedic implants.

Dr. AbdelGawad's interests are centered around materials and manufacturing, with a strong focus on corrosion of light metal alloys. With an extensive teaching background spanning over 10 years, she has developed a keen interest in advancing innovation in engineering education. At present, she actively explores various methods to enhance student engagement and optimize their learning experiences through curriculum and course design.

Her primary teaching objective is to foster a lifelong learning mindset in her students by promoting critical thinking and problem-based learning. Dr. AbdelGawad’s teaching philosophy integrates real-life ethical dilemmas to encourage students to think deeply, challenge their opinions, and integrate ethics into their coursework to help shape them into successful, professional, and socially responsible engineers.

Dr. Omar Mendoza Mahmood is the clinical director and assistant professor of clinical and counseling psychology at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). Previously, he was the acting clinical director of psychology and a neuropsychologist at Sidra Medicine. He is licensed to practice psychology in both California and Qatar. As a clinician, he has conducted numerous neuropsychological evaluations of children and adults. As a clinical supervisor, he focuses on developing the ethical and professional skills of mental health practitioners who are early in their careers.

Dr. Mahmood grew up in California and completed his undergraduate degree from UCLA with a double-major in Psychobiology and Arabic. He then studied Arabic and Islamic studies at Dar al-Mustafa in Hadramawt, Yemen. Dr. Mahmood earned his graduate degrees in clinical psychology from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He completed his internship and his postdoctoral neuropsychology fellowship at the University of California, San Diego. He frequently gives community lectures on topics of mental health, brain development, and psychology from an Islamic perspective. In addition, he serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for various peer-reviewed scientific journals in the fields of addiction, psychology, neuropsychology, and neuroimaging.

Dr. Rudwan Abdul-Al is a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) and Adjunct Lecturer in the Master of Arts program in Counseling Psychology at HBKU’s College of Islamic Studies (CIS). With over 25 years of clinical, academic, and leadership experience in the UK and Qatar, he is recognized for his contributions to psychiatry, medical education, and research innovation.

Dr. Abdul-Al trained extensively in the UK, where he held senior leadership roles, including Associate Medical Director and Director of Research and Innovation within the National Health Service (NHS). His early career featured significant contributions at Cambridge University through the landmark ÆSOP study on psychosis and ethnicity, alongside advanced psychotherapy training under leading Cambridge clinicians. He has also served as Honorary Clinical Teacher at the University of Sheffield and Senior Clinical Tutor at Hull York Medical School.

He is a member of the board of examiners for the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Qatari Board of Medical Specialties (QBMS). Dr. Abdul-Al holds an MD from Damascus University, an MPH from the University of Nottingham, and a Master of Usul al-Fiqh from Qatar University. His research interests include cognitive styles in depression, eye movement studies, and integrating AI and virtual reality in mental health assessment. A recipient of multiple clinical excellence awards, he co-authored Qatar’s National Clinical Guidelines for Anxiety Disorders and Dementia and continues to advance mental health education through innovative projects.

Dr. Renuka Prasad Gurunanjaiah is a Post-doctoral researcher at the Neurological Disorders Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI). He earned his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Seoul in 2020. He then joined the Korea University College of Medicine, where he investigated rare genetic disorders such as Cohen Syndrome using organoid-based models and functional implications of novel gene mutations.

Dr. Prasad’s research integrates patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells with organoid platforms, focusing on neurodevelopmental disorders. He is proficient in neural organoid culture, genome editing, molecular biology, and confocal imaging, and has presented his work at international conferences such as ISSCR, ISN-APSN, KSBMB, and IFAA. His research aims to advance human brain disease modeling and develop safer therapeutic strategies using neural organoid systems.

Dr. Salim Bougarn is a multidisciplinary clinical and translational research scientist with over 15 years of experience in immunology, oncology, infectious diseases, and cellular therapy. He has led pioneering research at the intersection of cancer biology, immune engineering, and host-pathogen interactions.

From 2015 to 2023, Dr. Bougarn served as a staff scientist associate at Sidra Medicine, Doha, where he led projects on primary immunodeficiencies, pediatric infectious diseases, immune profiling in rare diseases, cancer stem cells, and cellular therapy. His work advanced functional genomics in neonates and children, and deepened understanding of genetic susceptibility to infections.

His oncology research includes adoptive cell therapy, CAR-T and CAR-NK engineering, microRNA roles in tumorigenesis, and cancer risk modeling in IBD. He previously held a postdoctoral position at Weill Cornell Medical College (Qatar and New York) and served as a research assistant/lecturer at the Universities of Amiens and Tours in France, contributing to vaccine development and innate immunity research.

Dr. Bougarn holds a Ph.D. in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from INRA, France, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), and a Master’s in Drug Toxicology.

His research interests include cancer immunotherapy, cancer stem cells, pediatric immunology, host-pathogen interactions, precision medicine, and functional genomics.
 

Professor Omneya Abdelsalam is a professor of ethical finance & sustainable Development, a certified educator accredited by the UK Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS), and a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (Advance HE) since 2004. She obtained her PhD from Edinburgh Business School and held academic positions in triple-accredited UK business schools for 25 years. She has also assumed various academic leadership roles in top international universities over the last 15 years. She is the founding director of the International Research Centre “Ethical Finance, Accountability & Governance” (EFAG) at Durham University (top 100) and the founding and lead director of Durham University Sustainable Development Goals Implementation Network, funded by the British Council (Newton Fund). She received multiple awards and secured substantial research funding totalling £2.25 million from UK and international research councils and industry. She is currently working on two funded international research projects. She published her research in top international academic journals such as the Journal of Corporate Finance, British Accounting Review, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Banking & Finance (All A* rated) as well as Journal of Business Ethics (Financial Times top 50), Journal of Financial Services Research, Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money, and Journal of Financial Stability (All A rated). She is a subject editor of the Journal of International Financial Markets Institutions & Money (A rated) and Emerging Markets Review (A rated). She supervised 126 Master's, MBA & PhD students up to successful completion, and her students have progressed well in academic, research, as well as professional careers in many countries around the world (UK, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Egypt, Germany, UK, Morocco, etc).

Skander Charni is a Research Assistant at Qatar Computing Research Institute and a master’s student in the College of Science and Engineering at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science with distinction from Qatar University. His current research centers on scalable particle-based variational inference.

Mohamed Chaker received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Université de Montréal (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) in 1986. He has been a professor at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Varennes, Quebec, since 1989. From 2003 to 2024, he held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Plasmas Applied to Micro and Nanomanufacturing Technologies.

Professor Chaker has published more than 370 peer-reviewed journal articles (over 20,700 citations, H-index = 81, Google Scholar) in diverse research areas, including advanced plasma source characterization, such as high-density and laser-induced plasmas, and their applications to thin-film and nanomaterials synthesis, nanometer-scale pattern transfer, and device fabrication.

He served as Director of the Centre Énergie et Matériaux (1999–2002) and later as Director of the Centre Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications (EMT) (2002–2005) at INRS. Professor Chaker has played a key leadership role in developing major Quebec research consortia, such as Prompt-Québec and NanoQuébec. At the international level, he is frequently invited to participate in expert evaluation committees. Notably, he chaired the Scientific Committee of the Laboratory of Excellence SEAM – Pres Sorbonne Paris Cité (Science and Engineering for Advanced Materials and Devices) from 2011 to 2023. Since 2005, he has also served as Director of the Laboratory of Micro and Nanofabrication (LMN) at INRS.