Taller: Mujeres en las Ciencias (UCR)

OWSD fellowship represents a real empowering difference in my life and career

I want to be in the boardroom. I want to be part of the policy mechanism. I want my influence to go higher than the classroom.

Just give me the seed and I will continue.

When I am seeing an impact, that’s what makes me as a scientist feel an achievement

All this has broadened my knowledge for this domain of science, gave me an open mind and also allowed me to learn many things.

OWSD has provided tremendous support in shaping my career as a researcher, science ambassador, role model for women scientists and a "think high" human being.

In today’s scientific environment, in which most PhD scientists concentrate on a single specific discipline, I might shift toward a more systemic view to approach the challenge in infectious diseases.

I owe ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘where’ I am in my career and professional practice today to OWSD because without the PHD Fellowship, all my achievements today would have been nothing but bleak.

I have to think of something that can help us, that we can use based on resources that we have. The lack of things is the biggest inspiration in my life. I want to help my country.

There is no reproduction without science. There is no electricity without science. There is no water without science…Life is science, science is life.

What fascinated me is that only 5% of microorganisms are harmful, and the rest are beneficiary.

The main problem in radiotherapy is that most cancer cells are resistant to radiation.

I wanted to show women that it was possible that when you do agricultural sciences, you can go on and do more for your career development.

If we do research, in addition to establishing connections with other researchers, we must also communicate and do a lot of outreach in order to share our science with the community.

What has surprised me is the way technology is emerging and affecting the current state of research. We are encountering a fourth industrial revolution that entails advances in computing power, quantum computing and artificial intelligence, which has already been shown to alter the way we conduct research.

In the challenging socio-economic context of developing countries, knowledge should serve to solve the varied problems faced by our societies.

After my postdoc, I will return to Syria and work to achieve my big dream, which is to establish a research center.

I wanted to do applied physics, not theoretical physics… I really wanted to use all of the knowledge that I acquired at university to explain our environment.

The OWSD award helped me not only to become the researcher I am today, but also to become a leader in research.

The fellowship has really impacted my career. I was working in a university as an Assistant Lecturer, but with the OWSD fellowship I am undertaking a PhD that will allow me to reach the grade of Senior Lecturer.