Dr. Eyad Ahmad Masad currently serves as the Vice President for Research at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, overseeing the continued growth of HBKU’s research ecosystem. Prior to joining HBKU as a Professor at the College of Science and Engineering, he spent 20 years at Texas A&M University and the branch campus in Qatar, where he held key leadership roles. Dr. Masad contributed to establishing the Qatar Foundation as a hub of research excellence. He is a distinguished member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Dr. Masad is recognized globally for his work in multi-scale characterization and modeling of infrastructure materials. Dr. Masad served in various leadership roles in professional organizations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Transportation Research Board (TRB), and the Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering (APSE).

Dr. Masad is on the editorial boards of many international journals. He is the recipient of several national and international awards in recognition of his leadership, academic, and research achievements, such as the Francis C. Turner Award (2022) from the Transportation and Development Institute of ASCE, the Monismith Lecture Award (2022) from the Geo-Institute of ASCE, and the James Laurie Prize (2019) from ASCE.

Aldana Al-Sulaiti is a PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). She earned her Bachelor's degree in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University in 2019 and her Master's degree in Cybersecurity from HBKU in 2025. Her research interest is in investigating quantum-enhanced approaches to machine learning.

Dr. Mohammed R. Shaker is a Scientist at the Neurological Disorders Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He earned his PhD in Neuroscience from Korea University, Seoul, in 2017, and was subsequently awarded the prestigious Brain Korea 21 Plus Fellowship. He then joined the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology (AIBN) at The University of Queensland, where he advanced organoid models for the study of human brain and spinal cord development.

Dr. Shaker’s research integrates patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with organoid platforms, focusing on neurological disorders, e.g. white matter diseases and neural tube defects. His work has garnered multiple national and international accolades, such as fellowships from the Children’s Hospital Foundation and the European Leukodystrophy Association. Dr. Shaker continues to explore innovative 3D culture systems and computational approaches to accelerate breakthroughs in neuroregeneration and disease modeling. His pioneering research remains at the forefront of precision medicine and translational neuroscience.

Dr. Jasni earned her BSc and MSc in General Biotechnology from the University of Calicut, India. She completed her PhD in Genomics and Precision Medicine from Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar, under the supervision of Dr. Ayman Al Haj Zen. During her PhD, she characterized the functions of coronary artery disease GWAS gene candidates in the human aortic smooth muscle cell phenotype switching model of atherosclerosis.

In 2024, she joined Dr. Julie Decock’s team at QBRI as a Postdoctoral researcher. Her current research focuses on cancer-testis antigens and their role as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in Pediatric Solid Tumors.

Dr. Ahmed Lekssays is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Qatar Computing Research Institute. He obtained his PhD from the University of Insubria in Varese, Italy in 2022 funded by EU's Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. His research interests include malware analysis, software security, and distributed systems.

Dr. Tasnim Mohiuddin is a Scientist in the Arabic Language Technologies group at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), where he works on pioneering initiatives in the development and enhancement of Large Language Models (LLMs). He is a core contributor to the creation of Fanar, QCRI's flagship LLM. His current research focuses on domain-specific LLM innovations, including specialized areas such as Code LLMs and Multimodal LLMs.

Before joining QCRI, Dr. Tasnim was a researcher at Huawei Research Center in Singapore, where he concentrated on multimodal representation learning, bridging both linguistic and visual modalities. His research contributions have been consistently recognized through publications in leading academic conferences.

Tasnim completed his doctoral studies at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, receiving his PhD in June 2022 under the mentorship of Professor Shafiq Joty. His doctoral dissertation was honored with the prestigious Outstanding PhD Thesis Award, reflecting the originality and impact of his research. During his doctoral studies, he also gained valuable experience as a research intern at Meta AI Research, working under the guidance of Professor Philipp Koehn.

Mohamed Elfeky is a Principal Software Engineer at Qatar Computing Research Institute. Before joining QCRI, he was a Senior Software/Research Engineer at Google, USA. He joined Google in 2005 after receiving his PhD in Computer Science from Purdue University.

At Google, Mohamed worked on many products, including Translate, AdSpam, Transliteration, and Search Query Understanding. More recently, Mohamed joined the Google Speech Recognition team in New York where he launched the Arabic Speech Recognition Model, and later helped the team grow the number of recognized languages to over 100. Mohamed has received two Founders’ awards at Google and he also has two patents under his name.

Dr. Ma’moun Al-Rawashdeh is an Associate Professor in the College of Science and Engineering at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He received his MSc (CumLaude) and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands in 2013. With 7 years of industrial experience working at Jordan's Refinery, IMM Institute in Germany, and Albemarle Catalyst Company in the Netherlands. He helped commercialize three hydro-processing catalysts and led many R&D projects related to different types of reactor designs, heterogenous catalyst manufacturing, and testing.

He joined Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) as an Assistant Professor in 2019. At TAMUQ, he established key industry partnerships, secured external research funding from industry and QNRF, built key experimental infrastructure in Qatar, published 23 peer-reviewed journal articles (37 in total), invented 3 US provisional patents, 45 scientific contributions, and has invited talks at national and international levels.

His research focuses on developing novel reactors and process technologies related to making sustainable and circular fuels and chemicals. Dr. Al-Rawashdeh is chairing and co-chairing graduate doctoral and master students, and teaches courses in chemical reaction, reactor engineering, and applied catalysis. He serves as guest editor and peer reviewer for leading journals, chairing and co-organizing AICHE international sessions, and organizes various conferences and workshops involving industry-academic-government.

Dr. Sara Hillman is an associate professor of Applied Linguistics and English at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. She holds a PhD in Second Language Studies from Michigan State University, where her research centered on identity formation and community building in an Arabic heritage language classroom. Before joining HBKU, Dr. Hillman taught for nine years at Texas A&M University in Qatar and served as the foundation English program coordinator. At TAMUQ, Dr. Hillman was recognized for her teaching excellence with the Dean’s Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in 2023 and the Liberal Arts Faculty of the Year Award from the Department of Student Affairs in 2022.

Dr. Hillman’s research examines the intersections of language, identity, and communication in educational and multilingual contexts, with a focus on Qatar. Her work has been published in top-tier academic journals, including TESOL Quarterly, System, Linguistics and Education, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, Language Learning Journal, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, and many others. She has also contributed numerous chapters to edited volumes focused on language, identity, and higher education in the Gulf and Arab world.

Dr. Asmaa Al Fadala, an Assistant Professor at the College of Public Policy at HBKU, holds a rich 25-year career spanning K-12 education, higher education, and policy development. Her multi-faceted journey includes roles as a governmental policy writer, professor, author of leadership reform publications, and board member of educational organizations. Dr. Al Fadala's research expertise covers leadership for learning, education transformation, entrepreneurship education, teacher professional development, educational reform, innovation in education, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An esteemed academic, she holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil from the University of Cambridge in Educational Leadership and Policy and has made significant contributions to the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute. In addition to her scholarly achievements, Dr. Al Fadala advises global entities like Karanga and the Hughes Hall Development Strategy Group, while also serving on advisory committees for organizations like Greater Share. Notably, she is a jury member for the Riyada Award in Oman and sits on the board of the University of Doha for Science and Technology. Furthermore, Dr. Al Fadala is an active member of the Comparative International Education Society and International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, highlighting her commitment to advancing educational discourse globally.