Prof. Siham Yousuf A Alqaradawi
Doha: Prof. Siham Yousuf A Alqaradawi, Professor of Organic Chemistry at College of Arts and Sciences – Qatar University (QU), joined Qatar University in September 1977 as an undergraduate student.
She graduated with an excellent grade in 1981 when she was ranked first at the College of Science and second at the level of Qatar University in the fifth batch of graduates.
She continued her studies and obtained PhD from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom in 1992. She was awarded the prestigious William Fulbright Scholarship as a Visiting Researcher at Temple University in Pennsylvania, USA in 2010/2011. She was also awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize in 2003.
During her tenure as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (2005-2010), she established the College of Pharmacy and introduced the International Affairs Program. The international accreditation for many programs such as the Chemistry Program from the Canadian Society of Chemistry and the Biomedical Sciences Program has been received.
She has taught several courses to hundreds of students since her appointment at Qatar University as an assistant professor, and she has participated in various committees at the department, college, and university levels. She has received six research grants from the Qatar National Research Fund and happened to have published more than 75 scientific papers in international journals with a high impact factor.
While sharing her journey from a researcher to the title of the inventor, Dr. Siham said, “A researcher attains the title of the inventor when his/her research leads to outstanding results that no one has reached before. The researcher can think outside the box and transform his research and ideas from theoretical knowledge and strategic initiatives into real technological and realistic solutions that provide additional value, and when the researcher registers his work as a patent to develop these ideas into initiatives, products and pilot projects that serve national priorities.”
QU creates an environment encouraging to do invention and innovation, “Qatar University has set aside a number of internal research grants to help faculty members carry out their studies. Researchers can also engage research assistants to build a study team that is responsible for following up on practical and administrative matters.
“The money for these research awards also contributes to the procurement of scientific research equipment, chemicals, materials in support of scientific research, and the University generously supports students’ attendance at scientific conferences, which allows them to learn about what is going on in the world of cutting-edge experiences and technologies by meeting with renowned scientists and networking.”
Explaining about her recent invention, she said “The current patent is explaining how to remove toxic carbon monoxide emitted into air through car exhaust by its catalytic conversion into less toxic carbon dioxide. The catalyst reported herein may have potential application as a component of the three-way catalytic converters. Indirect application may include purification of hydrogen gas in the methane reforming process for fuel cells systems or removal of CO poisoning in carbon dioxide laser systems.”
“The tailored CuO/TiO2 NT composition constitutes an active and stable catalyst to convert the highly toxic carbon monoxide in exhaust or flue gas to less toxic carbon dioxide without the need to utilize the high cost precious metals such as platinum, gold or palladium that are well-known for their superior catalytic activity.
“Our catalyst provides comparable activity and higher stability compared to plasmonic metals-based catalysts and suffers much less from the thermally-induced sintering, typically observed for gold or platinum-based conversion catalysts. Our catalysts can be produced at large scale in a scalable fashion through environmentally and economically-friendly approach,” she added.
This catalyst can be used to remove the toxic carbon monoxide gas emitted into the air in flue gas, car exhaust, or factories to improve air quality by oxidizing it to less toxic carbon dioxide, in addition to the possibility of using the catalyst to purify hydrogen gas during the methane reforming process and for fuel cell systems.
Sharing the importance of inventions for the development of communities she said, “The inventions have great importance in our lives. One of the most important benefits that inventions provide to humanity is that they save and facilitate us to carry out the difficult tasks that require very high physical efforts, including those inventions used in construction, drilling, and excavation operations.”
