Two UAE scientists among six Arab women honoured by L'Oréal-UNESCO in Dubai
Dr Marieh Al Handawi of NYU Abu Dhabi and Khalifa University's Jawaher Al Hammadi are among this year's six For Women in Science Middle East fellows.
Six women researchers from the Arab world were honoured in Dubai this week in the 13th edition of the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Middle East programme, and two of them work in the UAE.
Dr Marieh Al Handawi, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University Abu Dhabi, studies how desert plants such as the Tamarix aphylla tree cope with dry, salty ground, with the aim of pulling water from humid air using less energy. Jawaher Al Hammadi, a PhD student at Khalifa University from Sharjah, builds lab-made cell membrane models, combining synthetic parts with extracellular vesicles and electronic sensors, to help test treatments tailored to each patient.
The other four are Alaa Al Mushaikeh and Dr Aljawharah Al Rubayyi of KAUST in Saudi Arabia, Hadeel Zedan of Qatar University, who works on antiviral medicines, and Dr Sara Al Araimi of Oman's University of Technology and Applied Sciences, who turns waste into water and useful materials. Since 2014 the programme has backed 69 women scientists in the region, 25 of them in the UAE, with Dh4 million in research funding, The National reported.
For women researchers in the UAE, the programme takes applications from PhD students and postdoctoral researchers each year; the dates for the next round have not been announced yet.