Towards More Sustainable Arab Academic Institutions

HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan is a leading advocate for science as a catalyst for change. She is a dedicated science enabler in the Arab World where so many challenges urgently require science- based solutions. The Princess has worked for over a decade to help foster an environment for home-grown solutions to be found for pressing issues facing the region.
                    
HRH is President of the Royal Scientific Society (RSS), Chair of the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), and Vice-Chair of the Jordan Museum. In August 2020, the Director General of UNESCO appointed HRH as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Science for Peace. 
                    
In June 2017, the Director-General of UNESCO appointed HRH as UNESCO Special Envoy for Science for Peace. This unique honour recognises HRH’s efforts to combine science and research with cultural heritage to foster peace, opportunity and prosperity. Princess Sumaya was Chair of the World Science Forum 2017, which was held in Jordan under the theme of ‘Science for Peace’, under the Patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah.

Moustafa Samir Moussa is an associated professor, Director of the Valley of Science & Technology (VST) and Director of Sustainable Development Center at Zewail city of Science & Technology (Egypt). He is an environmental expert and his specialization is domestic and industrial wastewater, solid waste management, environmental projects planning and capacity building. He has been also involved in many projects (Feasibility studies, capacity building and R&D) on water and wastewater management in Egypt and the Mediterranean area (IWSPI, IWSPII, ISSIP, ESRISS, WWDSS, H2020).
                    
He obtained his MSc and PhD degrees in Nitrification in saline industrial wastewater at the International Institute for water education (UNESCO-IHE) and technical university (TU) in Delft, the Netherlands. This was a joint project of UNESCO-IHE, TU Delft, Shell Global, Ecco Tannery Holland, Heiploeg and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
                    
He is currently teaching wastewater treatment, solid waste management, hazardous waste management, green economy, and other engineering courses. His current research interests cover wastewater treatment, Innovative sustainable solution for Urban-Rural area, and Innovative sustainable solutions for Industrial sector: (Pollution Prevention, Resource Recovery and Industrial Ecology).

Francisco Marmolejo is Higher Education President at Qatar Foundation (QF), where he leads QF’s support and coordination activities at Education City, the largest campus of its kind at the global level, based in Doha, Qatar, to the unique ecosystem of eight prestigious universities offering more than 70 undergraduate and graduate programs to students from 60 countries. Previously (2012-20), he worked at the World Bank, where he served as the Global Higher Education Coordinator, based in Washington, DC., and more recently as Lead Higher Education Specialist for India and South Asia, based in New Delhi. From 1995 to 2012, he served as founding Executive Director of the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration, a network of more than 160 universities mainly from Canada, USA and Mexico, based at the University of Arizona, where he also worked as Assistant Vice President, Affiliated Researcher at the Center for the Study of Higher Education, and Affiliate Faculty at the Center for Latin American Studies. Previously, he has been American Council on Education Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Academic Vice President of the University of the Americas in Mexico, and International Consultant at OECD in Paris. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from his Alma Mater, the University of San Luis Potosi, the University of Guadalajara, and the University of Nuevo Leon in Mexico.

Dalila Loudyi is a Professor at Hassan II University of Casablanca - Faculty of Science and Technology. She is lecturing and supervising many courses and research works in water and environmental engineering. In 1995, she graduated from Mohammedia School of engineers and, in 2005, she got her PhD in Hydroinformatics at Cardiff school of engineering, UK. Prof. Loudyi holds also a master degree in territorial governance and public law.

Pr. Loudyi has been selected by the Moroccan ministry of higher education as a National Contact Point in environment, in 2010, to promote the use of the Seventh European Framework Program (FP7) for research and development at a national level. She participated in many research projects with European and American academic partners. She is a member of the climate change experts committee of the water utility LYDEC, and a member of the MENA committee of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR).

Nadia El-Awady is the chief editor of Nature Middle East, following in the footsteps of its inaugural editors, Mohammed Yahia and Pakinam Amer. She has worked as a science journalist and editor for almost 20 years, covering science topics related to the Middle East and Asia.

In addition to her work in science journalism, she has managed training projects for science and investigative journalists in the Arab region. She also taught science and online journalism at undergraduate university level. El-Awady has an MB BCh in medicine and surgery from Cairo University and an MA in journalism and mass communication from the American University in Cairo.

El-Awady was based in Egypt for most of her adulthood but is currently based in the much colder north of England.

Mohammed Yahia is the executive editor of Nature Portfolio in the Middle East, which is part of Springer Nature. He joined 11 years ago as the launch editor of Nature Middle East, an online portal that focuses on science and science-related news from the Arab world. He now works with the editorial teams of several publications in the Middle East and Europe, including Nature Italy, Nature Arabic Edition and For Science, the Arabic version of Scientific American.

Mohammed is also the past president of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) and has been the vice president of the Arab Science Journalists Association for the past four years.