Guest Speakers
Meet our guests
Ali Raza
Ali Raza is a senior at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar majoring in Business Administration. Ali is also a successful YouTuber and Instagram personality. He has more than 80,000 subscribers on YouTube and an excess of 40,000 followers on Instagram. Ali Raza came to the Science Journal to talk about the algorithms and ideas that are necessary to embrace to cultivate a successful social media presence
Christina Paschyn
Christina M. Paschyn is a multimedia journalist and award-winning documentary filmmaker. She has reported for major news organizations across the globe, including the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, TIME.com in London, E News in Johannesburg and KVRR-TV as the station’s congressional correspondent in Washington, D.C.
Scheherazade Safla-Gafoor
Scheherazade Safla-Gafoor is a journalist and lecturer at Northwestern University in Qatar. Her work has appeared on Euronews, Al Jazeera, Channel 5, TRT world, and ENCA.
Latif Nasser
Latif Nasser is co-host of the award-winning WNYC Studios show Radiolab, where he has reported stories on everything from snowflake photography to medieval robots. In 2020, he hosted the miniseries The Other Latif, about his Moroccan namesake who happens to be Detainee 244 at Guantanamo Bay. In addition to his work in audio, Latif is the host and executive producer of the Netflix science documentary series, Connected.
Samya Ayish
Samya Ayish is a freelance journalist and Digital media trainer working at CNNArabic in Dubai. Her writing and reporting primarily revolves around cinema, and Arab cinema in specific, and she has created a podcast about projects by Arab filmmakers and the challenges they face. Moreover, she writes children's books and carries out reading sessions for them. Ayish joined the Science Journal team in an episode to discuss the reporting practices and challenges during the World Expo in Dubai.
Ezra Nkala
Ezra is a Computer Science student at Carnegie Mellon University Qatar. He is interested in understanding human relations as a function of individuals and society. He enjoys reading books, conversations with friends, writing and watching sports.
Ruba Ali
Ruba is a research assistant at the Qatar University Young Scientists Center and a chemical engineer. She joined us along with her colleague Shahad AlKhair in an episode of Science journal to discuss the Qatar University Young Scientists Center. Ruba has developed several STEM modules to spark the children’s interest in science and inspire them to pursue science-related careers.
Shahad Alkhair
Shahad Alkhair is a research assistant at Qatar University Young Scientists Center and a graduate of Qatar University’s engineering program. Along with her colleague Ruba Ali, she joined the science journal team in an episode recorded during the Wise Summit to discuss the Qatar University Young Scientist Center. Shahad is experienced in developing STEM education frameworks. Shahad hosts STEM workshops for both students and educators. She is also interested in art and sketching.
Fairuz Yosef
Fairuz Yosef is a rising sophomore at NU-Q majoring in Journalism. She is Colombian Palestinian Lebanese. She is passionate about art and writing and whatever requires creativity. Fairuz joined the Science Journal team to talk about NFTs and her experience as a digital content creator.
Dr. An Nguyen
Dr. Nguyen is a professor at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom, formerly a Vietnam-based science journalist. His research is focused on digital journalism, news consumption and citizenship, citizen journalism, science and health communication in the post-truth era, data and statistics in the media, and news in global developments. Dr. Nguyen joined us during episode 1 of season 2 of Science Journal to discuss science journalism in the global south.
Gitanjali Rao
Gitanjali Rao is an inventor, author, scientist and engineer, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics promoter from Colorado. She was named TIME’s First-Ever Kid of the Year in 2020. She has also been recognized on Forbes 30 Under 30 for her scientific innovations. Gitanjali was one of our guests at the Wise Summit of education, where we interviewed her about her work.
Naza Alakija
Naza Alakija is a senior advisor for UNICEF, and founder of the Sage Foundation, which funds grassroots movements to combat the climate crises. Naza has also supported several programs that work to ensure young girls’ right to holistic education. Naza spoke to the Science Journal team about her humanitarian work.
Safae Daoudi
Safae is a journalism sophomore at Northwestern University in Qatar, she is originally from Morocco. She is interested in politics and international relations. She spoke about her experience with online classes and the beginning of her journey at NU-Q.
Lena Al-Homoud
Lena is a Jordanian junior at Northwestern University in Qatar majoring in journalism and minoring in media and politics. She is also a student ambassador and she is interested in middle east culture and politics. In episode 10 of Science Journal, she spoke about her experience with online classes and her transition back to being in person.
Salma Ben Oumrhar
Salma is a student at ESCP Business School in France, currently enrolled in the pre-master year of the « Programme Grande Ecole ». She did preparatory classes in Lycée Descartes in Rabat, Morocco. In her free time, she enjoys watching k-dramas and anime as well as listening to punk rock music. She spoke about her experience with online classes and her new life in France.
Xuandi (Aaaron) Wang
Hailing from Zhejiang, China, Xuandi Wang studies journalism and international studies at Northwestern University. He is a freelance writer passionate about issues such as labor, urban infrastructure, and sexuality. In episode 10, he spoke about his experience with online classes as well as his exchange semester in Doha.
Michael McDonough
Michael McDonough is the director of Health, Safety, Security, and Environment at Northwestern University in Qatar. Originally from the U.K, he has been in charge of overseeing the developments of the covid pandemic at NU-Q. He spoke to us about the covid-related restrictions in Qatar and how Northwestern University in qatar handles them.
Kelly Wilson
Kelly is the writing center administrator and an english language instructor at Northwestern University in Qatar. Originally from Texas, she worked at the writing center of Texas A&M University in Qatar. In episode 10, Kelly shared her her experience teaching on Zoom and spoke about her expectations for NU-Q’s writing center in the next few semesters.
Tayyibah Kazim
Tayyibah is a sophomore in Journalism and Strategic Communication at Northwestern University in Qatar. She currently works as Professor Anto's research assistant and was the student ethnographer during the STEM News project where they conducted science journalism workshops for middle schools around Qatar and finally published the students' work in the Gulf Times.
Areesha Khan Lodhi
Areesha Khan Lodhi is a rising junior at NU-Q from Pakistan studying Journalism and Strategic Communication with a Media and Politics Minor. She is also Student Ambassador at NU-Q, Managing Editor of The Daily Q, and Vice President of the South Asian Students Association in Qatar. She is especially interested in research work, documentaries, and science, health and environmental journalism. In the STEM news project, she was scouting for sources for the students to arrange interviews for them and provided the students with feedback and edits on their articles.
Lujaina Al Jabri
Lujaina Al-Jabri is a computer science student at GUTech Oman. During Episode 7, she spoke about the vaccination process in Oman and the general attitudes towards it.
Dr. Ibrahim Al Busaidi
Dr. Ibrahim Al Bousaidi is an infectious disease specialist who works at Sultan Qaboos Hospital. He spoke about the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine in our 7th episode and explained the basics behind the way it works while also debunking myths about COVID-19.
Janessa Acuña
Janessa Acuna is a registered behavior technician and a student at San Diego State University majoring in psychology. She received the COVID-19 vaccine in March 2021 and spoke about her experience in the 7th episode.
Maham Qadri
Maham Qadri is the founder and CEO of Texapreneur based in Houston, Texas, a community that sheds light on small businesses and small business owners in Texas. She received the COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021 and joined the science journal team in episode 7 to share her experience.
Dr. Jörg Matthias Determann
Dr. Determann is an associate professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. He joined the Science Journal team in the fourth episode to discuss science journalism and history of science in the Arab world.
Dr. Jairo Lugo-Ocando
Dr. Lugo-Ocando is the director of the Executive and Graduate Education and professor in residence at NU-Q. He spoke to the science journal team in the third episode about science journalism and the socio-political circumstances surrounding it in the era of Covid-19.
Dr. Rana Dajani
Dr. Rana Dajani is a Palestinian-Jordanian molecular biologist teaching biology and biotechnology at Hashemite University. Her research focuses on the genetics of Circassian and Chechen populations in Jordan and the theory of biological evolution in relation to Islam. She is currently studying the epigenetics of trauma on resilience among vulnerable communities. She joined the science journal team in Episode 6 about the role of science journalists and the media in spreading information about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roja Pande
Roja is a junior majoring in Journalism and Strategic communication at NU-Q. She is currently doing her journalism residency and spoke in the third episode of Science Journal alongside professor Dedinsky about her experience.
Shafaq Zia
Shafaq Zia is a Journalism senior at Northwestern University in Qatar who takes a special interest in covering science and health topics and is excited to pursue this passion by experimenting with a different medium this time around. Shafaq spoke about her journalism residency of Spring 2020 during the second episode of Science Journal.
Professor Mary Dedinsky
Professor Dedinsky is the director of Northwestern University in Qatar’s journalism program and has worked for Tribune and Sun-Times. She spoke in the second episode of Science Journal about the complication of organizing a remote journalism residency for NU-Q’s class of 2022.