About Our Scholars
Scholars
At AlThuraya Foundation, our students are our greatest assets. Their success inspires us to expand our programs and multiply our impact. Our scholars have studied at a wide range of universities and educational institutions worldwide, including:
- University of Cambridge
- Harvard University
- Imperial College London
- The University of Melbourne
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of Waterloo
- Illinois Institute of Technology
- Universität Bonn
- Monmouth College
- Aalto University
- The National University of Ireland – Galway
- ESSEC
- Centrale Supléc
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Employment
Following their studies and qualifications, our scholars have gone on to work at prestigious companies and organisations such as:
- Microsoft
- World Health Organisation
- Microsoft Research Center for Natural User Interfaces
- Boston Children’s Hospital – A Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital
- Monmouth College
- JP Morgan Chase & Co.
- Weight Watchers
- Baird and Warner
- Collins Aerospace
- UGE International (Solar Energy)
- Natural Resources Canada
- Skytron Energy
Alumni
Celine Jabr
Population Health Sciences
- B.A Sociology and Anthropology, Occupied Jerusalem – Palestine
- MA International Relations, University of Haifa – Palestine
- MPhil in Population Health Sciences (Public Health), The University of Cambridge, 2021-2022
What Are Your Research/ Vocational Interests? I am interested in researching health inequality and the social and political determinants of health in conflict regions. For my dissertation, I will be researching the impact of occupation and the blockade imposed on the occupied Gaza Strip in undermining the health system and its impact on the survival rate for patients diagnosed with non-communicable diseases whose treatments are unavailable in Gaza.
Why Is This Field Particularly Important? How Does It Address a Gap in the Region?Public health is an important field because it addresses health issues from a pre-emptive, organised and population-based approach rather than a curative and individualistic approach.
Moreover, the importance of public health grows in regions that suffer from fragile health systems that lack the infrastructure and resources to respond to the health needs of their population. Therefore, tackling health issues from a preventative approach can reduce the burden of disease on governments and communities.
The Middle East region suffers from a high incidence rate of non-communicable diseases and an already underdeveloped health system. Thus, this region can benefit immensely from a public health approach and pre-emptive interventions to improve the quality of life and increase health equity.
Moreover, the importance of public health grows in regions that suffer from fragile health systems that lack the infrastructure and resources to respond to the health needs of their population. Therefore, tackling health issues from a preventative approach can reduce the burden of disease on governments and communities.
The Middle East region suffers from a high incidence rate of non-communicable diseases and an already underdeveloped health system. Thus, this region can benefit immensely from a public health approach and pre-emptive interventions to improve the quality of life and increase health equity.
What Do You Aspire for?Celine aspires to complete her Master’s degree at the University of Cambridge, specializing in public health.
How Do You Plan on Giving Back to the Community?After completing her Master’s degree, Celine aspires to serve her community in the Middle East by working towards increasing adequate access to healthcare in the region, particularly in the field of oncology and cancer treatments. More specifically, she hopes to cooperate with governments and organisations in designing prevention and response interventions. Finally, Celine hopes to engage in both quantitative and qualitative research to assess the efficacy of the interventions in the field.
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Laith Al Sabek
Clinical Research
- Doctor of Dental Surgery, Damascus University, Syria 2020
- Master’s Degree in Clinical Research, The National University of Ireland – Galway, Ireland 2022
What Are Your Research/ Vocational Interests? Describe Research/ Project and Findings.
Laith’s research interests are in optimizing the overall quality of life through the leveraging of big data analysis and data analytics. Throughout a collaboration with national and international research teams, Laith worked on projects focusing on the impact of oral status on overall quality of life and evaluating the prevention efficacy of novel dental materials.
With Laith's igniting passion for improving students' experience in higher education, especially in developing countries, he has been a core team member of a cross-cultural project with ICL and MIT to capture and address the challenges and strategies of virtual supervision in medical education in Syria.
Why Is This Field Particularly Important? How Does It Address a Gap in the Region?As the MENA region has many fragile health systems, the utilization of the scientific and practical gains of clinical research and data analysis will help in developing, synthesizing knowledge, and applying skills that enhance the quality of medical delivery.
Key Achievements
Recipient of AlThuraya MENA Scholarship Award, AlThuraya Foundation.
Laith graduated amongst the top of the cohort at Damascus University. During his undergraduate studies, Laith participated in and won multiple awards in research competitions. Moreover, he led initiatives in Syria aimed to foster the research culture among students and provided training on the principles of scientific research. During his Master’s degree studies in Ireland, he was elected as the Class Representative of his course at NUIG by his peers. Alongside university work, he is actively engaging with postgraduate students from Syria to support them in their research projects.
What Do You Aspire for?Laith intends to use his knowledge to revolutionize and lead research that advances healthcare delivery in the developing and developed world.
How Do You Plan on Giving Back to the Community?Laith hopes to use the knowledge and expertise he gained through studying at NUIG to contribute towards advancing clinical and research facilities in the MENA region.
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Mohammed Saad Radwan
Nanotechnology
- BSc in Electronics and Communication Engineering, Mansoura University, Egypt
- MSc in Electronic Engineering, Mansoura University, Egypt
- MSc in Electronic and Nanotechnology, Aalto University, Finland 2021-2023
What Are Your Research/ Vocational Interests?
I am interested in Nanoelectronics devices. In nanoscale, we can build and fabricate devices which are smaller in size, faster in speed, and lesser in power consumption than conventional devices.
Why Is This Field Particularly Important? How Does It Address a Gap in the Region?Nanotechnology will open the doors for mobile devices with long-lasting battery life, high computational portable devices, high-density memory storage, and ultrasensitive sensors. My research is on new transistor works based on controlling the movement of single or few electrons. This device generates much less heat and consumes much less energy compared to current technology, but still, many technical problems must be solved before making this device real.
How Do You Plan on Giving Back to the Community?I plan after PhD to start a company to design memory chips based on single electron technology. I hope it will be a starting point for the Egyptian electronic industry. Also, I will be happy to participate in any activities within the AlThuraya Foundation community.
Romy Nehme
Industrial and Manufacture Engineering
- BAchelor of Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Lebanese American University, 2020
- MPhil Industrial Systems, Manufacture, and Management
Key Achievements
Romy graduated with a 3.99 out 4.0 GPA in her Bachelor's Degree ranking first amongst Industrial Engineering students. She maintained a persistent record being named Valedectorian in sixth grade and later in twelfth grade.
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Sarah Abdelbar
Data Sciences
- Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Minor in Business Administration. The American University in Cairo, Egypt. Graduated in 2018 (with Cum Laude Honors)
- Master in Data Sciences & Business Analytics - ESSEC & Centrale Supélec, Paris, France. 2021-Present
What Are Your Research/ Vocational Interests? Describe Research/ Project and Findings.I'm passionate about Data Science and storytelling through Data. I grew my passion during the pandemic when I was working in e-commerce at its toughest and most unpredictable peak. In 2020, I started my research in Data Science, taking online courses and networking with professionals. I was selected by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Prime Minister, and ruler of Dubai, for a scholarship for a Data Analyst Nanodegree on Udacity in an initiative called One Million Arab Coders. I was honoured to be part of this movement to raise awareness about the power of Data.
This field is very technical and is moving so fast, but we need quality education and research to be able to put it into action. In other words, research leads to more efficient utilization of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.
This field is very technical and is moving so fast, but we need quality education and research to be able to put it into action. In other words, research leads to more efficient utilization of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.
Why Is This Field Particularly Important? How Does It Address a Gap in the Region?The beauty of Data Science lies in the fact that it's multidisciplinary. All fields are trying to implement Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning Algorithms to automate their processes and reduce the dependency on human skills in tasks that machines can do. I believe that this is crucial as human expertise is definitely needed in other tasks that machines will never be able to fulfil. Even though the field is very dynamic, and it's evolving super-fast with endless opportunities for youth, there is a huge gap in Egypt and the Middle East in terms of expertise. Even though there are initiatives like One Million Arab Coders in UAE, Future Work is Digital and Digital Egypt Builders in Egypt, the progress of building expertise in Data Science needs to be moving exponentially so it can cope with the pace of the field itself. My vision is to bring all this knowledge back and contribute to raising awareness and building the needed potential in the region.
Key Achievements
Graduated with Cum Laude honours from the American University in Cairo.
I completed four Mechanical Engineering internships during my undergraduate degree, and the fifth one was in Nestle's supply chain team where I got hired after graduation. After 2 years of working at Nestle, I worked for Amazon for another 2 years. I was awarded the One Million Arab Coders scholarship award, given to the one million top achievers in the Data Analysis Track across the whole region.
What Do You Aspire for?I am working every day to improve my skill set and competencies, increase my knowledge and widen my perspective so I can help in bridging the expertise gap in the Middle East.
How Do You Plan on Giving Back to the Community?I'm planning to do more research and get hands-on experiences that will help me go back to Egypt and the Middle East, and partner with entities that can make a difference in the digitization of processes in the Middle East. The region is currently trying to cope with the Digital Era, and it needs youth with good skills, passion, and potential to create this kind of change.
Want to Know More?
As you can see, our scholars are a testament to the work of our scholarship charity.