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 Hamad 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.

Dr. Ayman Samara joined Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) Core Labs in 2015 as a Senior Scientist to help establish the optical microscopy lab, profilometry lab, thermal analysis lab, and thin film characterization. Dr. Samara is currently leading all analysis activities and manages the operations of these labs, supporting research at HBKU, local and global companies and educational institutes in Qatar. He obtained his MSc and PhD degrees in Optical Engineering and Science from the Center for Optoelectronics and Optical Communications at the University of North Carolina – Charlotte, and his BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Jordan. Dr. Samara started his career in the semiconductor industry in 2005 at Intel Corporation’s D1D Fab in Portland, OR, USA, as a Senior Process Development Engineer leading the development of metrology and defect detection capabilities for the Lithography process supporting manufacturing of the 65-32nm technology nodes. In 2009, Dr. Samara served as the Manager of the Dimensional Metrology and Defect Analysis facility in the assembly materials characterization division of Intel Corporation. Prior to Joining HBKU, Dr. Samara served as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the American University of the Middle East in Kuwait, where he established the Optics Engineering lab and taught multiple EE courses.
 

Dr. Karthik Somasundaram joined Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) in July 2022 as a Scientist at the Energy Center. He has nine years of experience in energy storage research especially in the field of Li-ion battery since his PhD. Dr. Karthik received his PhD from National University of Singapore (NUS) in November 2012. His research focused on modeling of transport phenomena in Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors. After his PhD, he spent several years in Singapore working on several research projects at NUS, NTU-Rolls Royce Electrical focusing on multi-scale, multi-physics modeling of

Li-ion batteries related to performance, safety and durability. He also worked as a Li-S cell modeler for Oxis Energy in UK on a joint research project with Imperial College, London and Cranfield University. 

Before joining QEERI, Dr. Karthik worked as a Senior Engineer at Caterpillar India in the Advanced Power Products division focusing on development, parameterization, and utilization of mechanistic and empirical models for Li-ion battery cells to predict performance and aging under various operating conditions.

Prior to that, he worked for Renault-Nissan Technology Center in India focusing on optimizing battery cell designs using electrochemical-thermal models, developing machine learning models for process automation and shortlisting of materials. 

Abdulaziz Al-Emadi is a Research Assistant with Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar. He had preciously worked in Qatar Petroleum and RasGas companies as an Instruments Technician, following which he joined QEERI as a Lab Technician. Upon completion of his degree, he assumed the role of Research Assistant at QEERI. 

Eng. Radee Dami Alrewaily is a Research Engineer with the Water Center at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) in Doha, Qatar. Previously, he worked at Qatar Petroleum (now Qatar Energy) in the gas production sector as an operator. He received his bachelor degree of Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Wales, UK, following which he started working in Qatar Foundation from 2008. His current work projects include: - MED thermal desalination plant design and operation; - oil/water separation technology development for oil spill cleanup and produced water treatment; - AC condensate water recycling and reuse.

Usman Zafar is a Research Associate with the Energy Management Group at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) in Doha, Qatar. He is a certified Google Cloud Architect and also a certified Cloudera & GCP certified Data Engineer with broad experience in Machine learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Speech (Speaker Diarization) as demonstrated by his coursework experience and multiple publications in leading journals/conferences.  He is also well versed in modern neural architectures and adept in techniques that make use of pre-trained models such as transfer learning that are essential for companies with small datasets. While he has worked a lot in machine learning, he believes it would have been impossible to train huge datasets without the required data engineering skills, which he attained through practical work on Hadoop, Spark and Google Cloud, and by completing relevant Google Cloud and Cloudera certifications. Mr. Zafar has worked on technologies such as BigQuery, Dataflow, Dataproc, Spark etc. and has the skillset to handle data of any size. As an organized, detail-oriented person with strong communication skills, he believes one of his primary strengths is his ability to learn new technologies quickly and effectively. At QEERI, he works on designing software systems for IOT use-cases, machine learning for energy disaggregation and forecasting energy demand and optimization of locations for maximum demand where demand can be defined by the end-user. Prior to working at QEERI, he has worked at many other places including Schneider Electric and Texas A&M University.