His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada is a distinguished national leader with more than 35 years of contribution to Qatar’s energy sector. He has held several senior ministerial and executive roles, most notably serving as the Minister of Energy and Industry and Chairman of the Board of Qatar Petroleum.

H.E. is currently serving as an adjunct professor in the Division of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He also serves as the Chairman of the Joint Advisory Board (JAB) at Texas A&M University Qatar (TAMUQ), the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Doha for Science and Technology, and the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Children’s Museum. With a solid knowledge base and extensive academic experience.

H.E. Dr. Al-Sada was a founding member of the National Committee for Human Rights. He also served as a member of the Permanent Constitution Preparation Committee and the Supreme Education Council. 
 

Dr. Paul Thornalley is a researcher in studies of the reactive metabolite, methylglyoxal (MG), and its metabolism by glyoxalase 1 (Glo1) of the glyoxalase system. His research is particularly in the development of insulin resistance and vascular complication of diabetes in which he is considered a founding investigator. He led research showing MG is abnormally increased in diabetes where it is associated with the development of vascular complications, and in prediabetes and obesity associated with insulin resistance. He characterized protein and DNA glycation by MG, showing hydroimidazolone MG-H1 and imidazopurinone MGdG and major adducts of protein and DNA in vivo. Dr. Thornalley showed MG-modified proteins are misfolded and activate the unfolded protein response and MG-modified DNA is associated with mutagenesis. He led development of small molecule inducers of Glo1 expression or “Glo1 inducer” therapeutics to counter dicarbonyl stress for treatment of insulin resistance and microvascular complications of diabetes. The prototype, trans-resveratrol and hesperetin combination (tRES-HESP), corrected insulin resistance in overweight and obese subjects. He also made the first cell permeable Glo1 inhibitor prodrug, S-p-bromobenzyl-glutathione diester - an experimental antitumor drug active against glioblastoma and multi-drug resistant tumors. His h-index is 106 with ca. 40,000 citations of his work.

Dr. Matteo Avella is an assistant professor at the College of Health and Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, principal investigator in the Division of Maternal and Child Health, and the head of the Lab of Reproductive Biology at Sidra Medicine.

Dr. Avella completed his bachelor's in Biology from the University of Milan and his PhD at the Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy where he studied the intestinal microbiota's effects on fish's early development and reproduction. He conducted postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Health in the United States. He further studied the mammalian system and focused his research efforts on understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating fertilization in mice and humans.

Before joining Sidra Medicine, Dr. Avella was an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Science at the University of Tulsa and the School of Health Professions at Eastern Virginia Medical School in the United States.

Dr. Abdulla Saleh Al-Shaiba is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the College of Public Policy (CPP) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). Prior to joining HBKU, Dr. Abdulla was employed with Mowasalat as the Director of  Procurement and Supply Chain, where he led a team of procurement professionals at multiple administrative levels.

Dr. Al-Shaiba completed hisMasters in Public Policy in Islam (Honors First Class) from the College of Islamc Studies, HBKU, and  received his PhD in Sustainable Energy from the College of Science and Engineering, HBKU. 

Dr. Al-Shaiba advocates a collaborative and congenial approach to teaching, driven by  a firm belief that students and tutors are partners in the learning journey thus breaking the traditional barriers between the two.
 

Dr. Samer Rashwani is a senior researcher at the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS). He pursued his BA in Islamic Studies from the Faculty of Sharia at Damascus University in 1998. In 2003, he earned his MA in Qurʾanic Studies from Cairo University, followed by a PhD from the same university in 2007.

Between 2007 and 2011, Dr. Rashwani was a faculty member at the Faculty of Sharīʿa at Damascus and Aleppo Universities. From 2011 to 2013, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien. Since 2013, he has served as a research fellow and lecturer at the Center for Islamic Theology at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

During his academic career, Rashwani developed a wide range of research interests and academic publications within the field of Islamic studies, including tafsīr, hermeneutics, Islamic theology, and Islamic ethics. In addition to his book Manhadj al-Tafsīr al-Mawḍūʿī [The Methodology of Thematic Interpretation of the Qurʾān: a Critical Approach] (Aleppo 2009), he has edited several volumes on Qurʾanic studies and modern Muslim thought.

Richard Steinberg is Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles; Visiting Professor of Global Studies at Stanford University; and Counselor to the American Society of International Law.

Dr. Steinberg is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning http://iccforum.com/,  served on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law from 2004-2014, and served on the Editorial Board of International Organization from 2003-2012. He has taught law courses at Stanford Law School, the University of California Berkeley (Boalt Hall) School of Law, Sciences Po (Institut d’Etudes Politiques) in France, the University of Coimbra in Portugal, and elsewhere.

Professor Steinberg has written over 40 articles, and edited or co-authored seven books on international law. 

Prior to arriving at UCLA, Professor Steinberg worked as Assistant General Counsel to the United States Trade Representative in Washington, D.C., and later as an associate with Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco. He also served as Project Director at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE) at UC Berkeley.

Dr. Osama Aldirbashi is an experienced mass spectrometrist, a biochemist, and a clinical biochemical geneticist. He is certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics, the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists and the European Board of Medical Genetics. He is currently a senior consultant clinical scientist, in the department of Lab Medicine and Pathology at  Hamad Medical Corporation. Dr. Aldirbashi is also an adjunct professor at College of Health & Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.

Dr. Julia Reichelt qualified as a Molecular Biologist at Marburg University, Germany. She studied the biology of skin keratins at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, Germany. At Newcastle University, UK, she started using genome editing technologies to develop gene therapies for keratinopathies including epidermolytic ichthyosis and epidermolysis bullosa. At EB House Austria, Salzburg, she was involved in the life-saving gene therapy in a boy with junctional epidermolysis bullosa who had 80% of his skin replaced with his own gene corrected keratinocytes. She continued to work on CRISPR-mediated gene therapy development in Innsbruck, Austria, before recently moving to Qatar to join Hamad Medical Corporation where her research is focused on translation of personalized gene therapy approaches into the clinic. Since 2022, she is affiliated with HBKU serving as Adjunct Associate Professor at the CHLS.

Dr. Julia supervised and mentored >50 students in her laboratory, published ˃ 55 peer reviewed articles, and has served as peer reviewer for several scientific journals and funding bodies.

Dr. Yasser Al-Sarraj earned his Ph.D. Degree in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) from the College of Science & Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University in 2021. He joined King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSH&RC), in Riyadh, as Research Technical Assistant in the Environmental Health Laboratory in June 2005.

Later, he worked at the National Laboratory of Newborn Screening at KFSH&RC in 2006. In 2007, he was appointed as a Research Assistant at Shafallah Medical Genetics Center (SMGC), Doha, Qatar, where he participated in diagnostic testing and scientific medical genetics research. In 2014, Dr. Al-Sarraj moved to QBRI as a Senior Research Associate.

He works as Research Specialist at Qatar Genome Program (QGP). Dr. Al-Sarraj’'s research focuses on investigating the genetics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Epilepsy. Alongside that, he is involved in several national and international research projects in genetics and population genetics, such as the Qatar Genome Research Consortium and the COVID-19 host genetics initiative. His essential contribution is in molecular genetic identification approaches and bioinformatics data analysis applications.

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.