Dr. Majd Hawasly is a scientist at the Arabic Language Technologies group at Qatar Computing Research Institute. He received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2014 in a topic at the intersection of robotics and machine learning. He then joined Five AI, a UK-based autonomous driving startup, where he eventually became a lead research scientist at the applied research team in motion planning and prediction. His research interest lies in developing robust and intelligent AI systems that continually learn and adapt.

Deborah Giustini holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Manchester. Before joining HBKU, she was a lecturer and postdoctoral fellow at KU Leuven (where she remains a research fellow in Interpreting Studies), lecturer and teaching assistant at the School of Social Sciences and the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute of the University of Manchester, and a research fellow in Sociology at Higher School of Economics. She has held research visiting positions at the Warwick Business School, at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Sophia University (Japan).

Her research takes a sociologically-informed perspective on labour processes and digitalization in knowledge-intensive sectors, such as the language industry, and practices of intercultural communication in organizations. Deborah has recognized international expertise in practice theory, and is a member of the Practice Theory Consortium at Lancaster University.

Deborah’s expertise is also built on her experience as a language specialist accredited to the Chartered Institute of Linguists, and with international think tanks including the WBG’s Macroeconomic Policy Working Group and the Economic Change Unit. She is an active member of the European Sociological Association, the British Sociological Association, the British Universities Industrial Relations Association, and the European Group for Organizational Studies.

Dr. Mahmoud Alhirthani is an Assistant Professor of Translation and Intercultural Communication and an award-winning translator with over twenty-five years of extensive experience in the field. His career encompasses teaching translation, conducting research on translation and intercultural communication, and translating from English into Arabic.

He has published numerous refereed research papers and books in renowned and award-winning cultural venues both within and beyond the Arab world. As a translation educator and consultant, Dr. Alhirthani has taught a wide range of graduate-level courses, including literary translation, media translation, and discourse and communication analysis. He also has substantial experience in academic administration, leading study teams and teaching staff, organizing workshops, and serving on conference committees. His expertise extends to designing courses and programs for undergraduate and graduate students.

Dr. Alhirthani has supervised and refereed numerous postgraduate theses in translation and intercultural studies at both local and international institutions. His exceptional work as a translator earned him the prestigious Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding for his Arabic translation of Brownlie’s Principles of Public International Law, a monumental work comprising 1,328 pages.

Dr. Maria Jimenez-Andres has extensive teaching experience in the fields of translation, interpreting and languages in the UK, Spain and the UAE. As a translator and interpreter, Dr. Maria has engaged in various roles at institutions such as the Bolivarian Embassy of Venezuela and Ipsos Mori in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Maria has a degree in Translation and Interpreting, an MA in Higher Education, and a PhD in Translation and Intercultural Studies. Her dissertation was on communication and language management in organizations supporting refugees. Her commitment to this work goes beyond academia. She is active in outreach and has carried out a number of research and non-research projects with NGOs working with refugee and migrant communities in Europe and the Middle East. More recently, she has produced a documentary, Tempo, on the lives of refugee musicians.

Dr. Saleh obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from Qatar University in 2014. She later joined the Ardehali Laboratory as a visiting scientist at David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). She participated in the characterization of cardiovascular progenitor cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells. Dr. Saleh then joined Dr. Apil Pyle Laboratory as a Graduate Student Researcher; she investigated how Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy disease severity, in mouse models, impacts the systemic delivery of human skeletal muscle progenitor cells. She obtained her PhD in Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology from UCLA in 2022. 

Dr. Ali Ait Hssain is a senior consultant intensivist and member of the ECMO Team at Hamad General Hospital, in Doha, Qatar. He has supervised PhD students at HBKU and is involved in clinical research including ICU patients with various diseases. He has also contributed to the Covid 19 diagnosis research with other colleagues at HBKU.

Alongside this, Dr. Hssain is an assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He received his medical degree and completed his residency of anesthesiology and critical care medicine in France.

Dr. Ali Ait Hssain has more than 20 years’ experience in Critical Care Medicine from different countries. He served as assistant clinical professor in university d’Auvergne in Clermont Ferrand, France. He was at the origin of the launch of the ECMO program in his center in 2007. 

He is involved in several multicenter trials as investigator in international and multicenter collaborative projects with academic institutions. He is the author of more than 80 papers and book chapters. He is the actual lead for research at the medical intensive care unit. He is the lead for the ECMO Simulation Team of Doha (ECSiTeD) and therefore advocating for Simulation Based training for interprofessional development.

Dr. Nayef A. Mazloum is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1994 and completed his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at New York Medical College in Valhalla in 2003.

Dr. Nayef A. Mazloum worked as an instructor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. He did his postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and worked at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q).

Dr. Mazloum’s research focuses on the molecular aspects of DNA repair mechanisms, the stability of the genome, and how the dysfunction of these regulatory pathways could lead to cancer, age-related or metabolic diseases.

His lab employs cellular, molecular, and genetic tools to investigate altered molecular pathways in metabolic disorders and cancer. Dr. Mazloum actively collaborates with local stakeholders in Qatar, including Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar University, Texas A&M University, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, and Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He also collaborates with global investigators at Harvard Medical School, Mayo Clinic, Brown University, and the University of East Anglia.

Umm-Kulthum is an early career researcher with experience in genomics, metagenomics, biomedical research and metabolomics. She spent most of her life in Qatar where she also graduated with research honours from Carnegie Mellon University located at the prestigious Education City. Her postgraduate experience involved several biomedical research projects including metabolomics of Alzheimer’s disease and liver diseases at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in the UK. Her PhD research with Hamad Bin Khalifa University was a combination of clinical and genomics research, looking into the genetics underlying rare growth disorders in paediatric patients recruited from a hospital in Qatar. Currently, Umm-Kulthum is working as a post-doctoral researcher with Professor Omar Albagha where she is involved in numerous Genome-Wide Association Studies projects which utilize the Qatar Genome Programme data to investigate various traits.

Dr. Esmat Zaidan is an Associate Professor at the College of Public Policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. She has 22 years of experience in academic institutions and international organizations like the World Bank, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She has spent 13 years in academia, holding senior roles in administration, teaching, and research.

Her experience includes strategic planning, academic accreditation, and ranking, curriculum design and restructuring, the conceptualization of new academic initiatives, scientific research and evaluation, partnerships with stakeholders, as well as team leadership and capacity building. She is a strong advocate for excellence in teaching and research, teamwork and collaborative approaches, and the faculty's role in societal progress. 

Her research primarily focuses on sustainable development policy and planning with an emphasis on sustainable urbanism and the complex interaction between humans and built environments. Her research portfolio extensively covers urban resilience and sustainability policies. 

Dr. Esmat Zaidan’s approach is interdisciplinary, addressing dynamic models of socioeconomic and environmental systems to create simulations and predictive models to enhance understanding and forecasting of the complex interplays between urban and natural environments. This includes the policy pathway for energy-efficient buildings, sustainable, resilient, smart, and people-centric urban areas, as well as impacts of technological change in urban life including smart cities and net-zero carbon communities.

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.