Research Matters

New to our Research Matters newsletter is this section dedicated to highlighting key events and/or research updates of interest and importance that have happened in the past month. To stay atop of how QNRF funding is keeping our community engaged, read more below.

On June 5^th, 2022, QNRF, along with the world, celebrated World Environment Day (WED), the United Nations’ day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. The theme for this year was aptly identified as “Only One Earth” drawing importance towards sustainable living in harmony with nature through consistent efforts by all of us to save the planet.

Radhouan Ben-Hamadou (PhD  and Env. Eng.), Associate Professor of Marine Sciences and Lead of the Marine Conservation and Restoration Research Group at Qatar University and ecohydrologist and oceanographer, speaks about his QNRF-funded R&D projects that aim to understand the ecological functioning of offshore oil and gas platforms, their connectivity with natural reefs and their contribution to support local productivity, fisheries and regional biodiversity.

This month’s Spotlight On features Qatar Research Leadership Program Graduate (QRLP) and QNRF-fund recipient Mousa Abuhelaiqa, Ph.D.  Dr. Abuhelaiqa is a Qatari Materials Engineer with an expertise in energy science and data analytics. He graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL) and University College London (UCL) where he researched emerging solar materials.  Through the QRLP program, which is dedicated to producing homegrown scientists who are capable of steering the continuous development and sustainability of Qatar’s research agenda and adding to the nation’s pool of science and research talent, Dr. Abuhelaiqa focused on researching on perovskite solar cells, new types of solar cells with limited long-term stability. His critical research adds to the current body of knowledge on the emerging solar material and tackles the stability challenge by applying novel thin films within the solar cell architecture.