QU celebrates contribution of women and girls in science

The celebration comes for the fourth year in a row, as Qatar University believes in the role of women and their active participation in the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, in addition to their prominent role in creating practical and societal solutions to preserve natural resources, especially water.Vice-President of Qatar University for Research and Graduate Studies, Professor Maryam al-Maadeed noted the important steps that Qatar had achieved in terms of laws and legislation, and the various types of support and opportunities it had provided to women, adding it opened the doors of science and work for women, and make them actively contribute to the development and reaching to the high positions.She explained girls constitute the largest percentage of students at Qatar University, with a continuous increase in the number of female faculty members, and post-graduate students, as well as a prominent presence of female cadres participating in research, education, and training activities, achieving distinguished achievements in important scientific topics and obtaining valuable international awards.Regarding the university's initiatives to encourage female researchers, the professor said that one of the important initiatives in this regard was to allocate a full issue of the journal 'Emergent Materials' issued by Qatar University to female researchers in nanotechnology, to encourage them in the field of science. As the topic of the celebration is concerned, she indicated that choosing water as this year's theme reflected an interest in this natural wealth, which is the sixth goal of the United Nations sustainable development goals, emphasising the importance of preserving this much-needed wealth with the economic development and population in different countries of the world.In a statement to QNA, Vice-President of Qatar University for Medical and Health Sciences, professor Asma al-Thani, praised the efforts made by Qatar University researchers in various scientific research sectors, pointing out that women research cadres made up 90% when it comes to research related to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic at Qatar University's Biomedical Research Center.Dr Anna Paolini, Director of the Unesco Office in Doha, and Unesco Representative to the Arab Countries in the Gulf and Yemen praised the leap made by Qatari women and girls in the field of science and engineering, noting that Unesco data show that the percentage of university graduates in Qatar for 2018 reached 88% in health and care, 75% in the natural sciences, and 53% in the fields of information and communication technology.