Hana is
half Saudi, half American, and was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. As an
undergraduate student, she studied Biology and Studio Art at Smith College in
Northampton, Massachusetts. She then completed a MSc degree in Plant Science at
KAUST, with a focus on molecular and genetic applications on plants and their
rhyzosphere. She studied RNA expression levels of a specific Sodium
transporter to visualize its location in Arabidopsis thaliana roots.
She also worked on Biochemical and motility screenings of
randomly mutated rhizosphere bacteria. Her research interest
then was in pinpointing genes that play a role in increasing a plant's
tolerance to increased salinity and drought caused by global warming. Now Hana
is a PhD student in the Marine Sciences, hoping to use some of the genetic
skills that she has learned to answer important Red Sea ecological questions.
For now, she is working on a population genetics study on specific groups of
crustaceans found across the Red Sea.
Art
also plays a huge role in Hana’s life and she hopes to be able to use
illustration, animation and any other form of art to enhance her, the public’s,
and the scientific community’s understanding of current scientific research.
So, if you are in dire need of expressing your scientific work artistically or
just want to make art in general, come to Hana to nerd out on art and even work
on a project together!