Dr. Arafat earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Maryland in the United States. He subsequently worked there before joining the Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences at Cairo University in Egypt. Additionally, he gained experience by working at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in South Korea, and both Qatar University and Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.

Dr. Arafat's research encompasses various topics within comparative politics and international relations, including multiculturalism, state fragility, personality cult, political reform in monocratic regimes, peacebuilding in protracted social conflicts, and decentralized conflicts.

Aisha Al-Qahtani holds a B.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Texas A&M University, an M.S. degree in biological and biomedical science and  Ph.D. in biological & biomedical science from (Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).

Her research focuses on applying electrical engineering in the biomedical field; she was among the team that worked on the biosensor design in smart sensor design at HBKU. She has recently expanded her scope of research to focus more on computational biology in the Center for Artificial Intelligence at Qatar Computing Research Institute.
 

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. Eltabakh is a Principal Scientist at Qatar Computer Research Institute (QCRI). He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Purdue University in 2010. He was a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), MA, USA, between 2011 and 2022. He has extensive industry-related experience working at Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Teradata (in the USA) for more than 8 years combined.   Dr. Mohamed Eltabakh’s research expertise spans the broad areas of big data management, scalable data analytics, AI and large language models, and distributed systems. Dr. Eltabakh is leading the Fanar project, an Arabic-centric GenAI platform developed in Qatar. Dr. Eltabakh’s research is funded by several entities, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), USA, the Ministry of Transportation (MoT), Qatar, and the Ministry of Interior (MoI), Qatar. 

Hanad Hassan is a seasoned finance leader with over 25 years of experience in various sectors, including private and public organizations, grant management, higher education, and government-funded projects. With an MBA and esteemed accounting certifications such as CPA, CGA, ACCA, and FCCA, Hanad brings valuable expertise to any organization, including his current senior leadership position at Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).

Throughout his career, Hanad has demonstrated strong leadership skills, fostering collaboration among cross-functional teams and maintaining effective communication. His background in corporate finance and accounting management equips him to guide teams in achieving their maximum potential and performance. Hanad has worked with reputable companies such as Shoppers Drug Mart, Microsoft Canada, eHealth Ontario, College of North Atlantic Qatar, and Sidra Medicine. In addition, he worked with various projects funded by organizations such as the World Bank, World Health Organization, and European Union Budget Support. His diverse experience highlights his adaptability and ability to succeed in different environments and industries. Hanad's expertise in managing budgets ranging from 200 million to 2.5 billion Qatari Riyal underscores his proficiency in handling financial operations of varying sizes and complexities, making him a valuable asset to any financial management team.

Dr. Nadir Durrani is a Senior Scientist at the Arabic Language Technologies (ALT) where he works on several projects such as Interpretability (NeuroX), Machine Translation (Shaheen), Speech Synthesis (NatiQ) and language processing tools for Arabic (Farasa).

Dorde Popovic received his BSc degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, in 2022. He received the Andrew Carnegie Scholar Award at Carnegie Mellon University.

Before joining QCRI, Dorde’s research focused on federated learning and edge computing. His senior thesis was the runner-up for the Allen Newell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research at Carnegie Mellon University. It also won second place for the Best Project Award at the Meeting of the Minds Research Symposium.

Currently, his research projects focus on Trojan backdoor attacks and defenses in deep learning. Alongside his collaborators, Dorde developed a detection technique for these attacks that won second place and received the data-efficiency award in the Trojan Detection Challenge at NeurIPS 2022.

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. 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.