Group Members

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Abu-Raddad is a Professor of Population Health Sciences and Director of the Biostatistics and Biomathematics Research Core at WCM-Q. He focuses on studying the epidemiological factors and population processes shaping infectious disease spread in human and animal populations. He joined WCM-Q in 2008 while serving as an Assistant Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA. He held positions as Research Scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington; as Postdoctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London, United Kingdom and as NSF-JSPS Postdoctoral Research Associate at Osaka University, Japan. He completed his Ph.D. study in Computational and Mathematical Physics at Florida State University. He serves as a consultant or advisory member for a number of key public health projects for organizations such as the World Bank, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and World Health Organization.

Dr. Abu-Raddad's research interests are multidisciplinary with emphasis on studying the epidemiology and ecology of infectious diseases using analytical and computational approaches in addition to conventional epidemiologic study designs. He was the lead author or co-investigator of several high impact studies in recent years such as in relation to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis C virus and SARS. His current main research interests include studying the spread of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/AIDS, HSV-2 and HPV; investigating the role of biological cofactors in HIV epidemiology; assessment of the impact of different HIV interventions such as vaccines and male circumcision; studying the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in the Arab and Muslim Worlds; studying tuberculosis epidemiology and assessing the impact of novel TB diagnostics, drug regimens and vaccines; studying the epidemiology of hepatitis C virus in the Middle East and North Africa; simulation of community randomized controlled trials and studying the ecology of multiple-strain infectious diseases.

Curriculum Vitae

Hiam Chemaitelly is an Assistant Professor of Research in Population Health Sciences at the Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q). Her research has been focused on promoting an in-depth understanding of the epidemiology of infectious diseases using epidemiological research methods, advanced statistical techniques, and mathematical modeling, with a primary focus on COVID-19, viral hepatitis, HIV, and sexually transmitted infections. Her research work has been key in informing infectious disease epidemiology and policy programming and resource allocation in the Middle East and North Africa and internationally. Her research work has concentrated recently on building an in-depth understanding of COVID-19 epidemiology and informing the Qatar National COVID-19 Response.

Dr. Chemaitelly is an accomplished scientist with a distinguished publication record including close to 100 publications, several of which appeared in leading high impact journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Lancet Global Health, Lancet HIV, PLOS Medicine, Clinical Infectious Diseases, BMC Medicine, and Emerging infectious Diseases. Her research work has been covered widely in international press and media such as at the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN. She is a reviewer for different prominent scientific journals and a member of the World Health Organization Strategic Information and Analysis Advisory Group.

Dr. Chemaitelly holds a Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Population Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK.

Curriculum Vitae 

Susanne Awad is a Biomedical Engineer currently holding the position of Research Specialist at IDEG at the Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar (WCM-Q). She is currently involved in studying the epidemiology of infectious diseases through the use of mathematical modeling. More specifically, her research project focuses on the development of mathematical models to understand the role of sexual network structure in HIV epidemiology and the impact of different forms of heterogeneity in such networks. The research project also aims to develop models to describe the impact of different HIV intervention strategies. Prior to joining WCM-Q, Susanne was an Engineer at Ibn Annafees Medical Company in Qatar. Her earlier research activities focused on the simulation of new non-invasive procedures to remove tumour cells using laser diodes. Susanne earned her M.Sc. Degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark.

Curriculum Vitae 

Adona Canlas holds the position of Research Group Administrator at IDEG at the Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar. She provides administrative support to the group’s research activities for several research projects. She is also involved in the maintenance of procedures as they relate to grants, contracts, and other administrative tasks.

Prior to joining IDEG, Adona worked as an Executive Secretary and Document Controller at SPK Construction in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She also held the position of Mathematics Instructor at the University of the Philippines and Roosevelt Science High School in Rizal, Philippines. Adona earned her B.Sc. degree in Mathematics from the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, Philippines.

Curriculum Vitae 

Soha Dargham is a Biostatistician, currently holding the position of Research Specialist at the Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Biomathematics Research Core at the Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar (WCM-Q). Soha contributes to study design of projects ranging from clinical trials to observational studies as well as instrument design, sample size calculations and power analyses. She also conducts various statistical analyses such as bivariate and multivariable regressions using both parametric and non-parametric tests. In addition, Soha contributes to the educational activities at the Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Biomathematics Research Core through instruction and organization of training seminars and workshops offered to different audiences at WCM-Q.

Prior to joining WCM-Q, Soha held the position of Administrative Intern at the Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Program at the Houston Methodist Hospital at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, USA. She promoted research partnerships, implemented quality nurse-led research, collaborated on nursing research projects (development of database, data collection and analysis, and report writing), and identified nursing research priorities to strengthen the research climate and infrastructure. Soha earned her MPH, specializing in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.

Curriculum Vitae 

Manale Harfouche is an Epidemiologist currently holding the position of Research Specialist at IDEG at the Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar (WCM-Q). She is involved in characterizing the epidemiology of different infectious diseases. Manale’s current research focuses on systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and meta-regressions, as well as other data syntheses, for sexually transmitted infections and viral hepatitis.

Prior to joining WCM-Q, Manale was affiliated with the American University of Beirut Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (AUB GRADE) center in Lebanon. Her earlier research activities focused on the adaptation of the 2015 American College of Rheumatology guidelines for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis to the Middle East and North Africa region. Manale earned her MPH degree specializing in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

Curriculum Vitae

Monia Makhoul is a Mathematical Modeler and is currently holding the position of Postdoctoral Associate at the Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Group (IDEG) at the Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q). Her research mainly focuses on mathematical modelling in relation to infectious disease epidemiology. Monia is currently working on modelling the transmission dynamics of different infectious diseases.

Prior to joining IDEG, Monia completed her PhD in Mechanics at the University of Avignon et de Pays de Vaucluse. Her doctoral dissertation was focused on the modelling of particles transport in a Stokes flow with ratchet effect. She earned her Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics and Modelling at the Picardie Jules Verne University and another Master’s degree in Fundamental Mathematics at the Lebanese University.

Curriculum Vitae

Sawsan AlMukdad is currently holding the position of Research Specialist at IDEG at the Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar (WCM-Q). She is conducting epidemiological research, with a primary focus on sexually transmitted infections, using state-of-the-art methodologies and tools such as meta-analyses, meta-regressions, and advanced statistical analyses. In addition, she is involved in the national study group for COVID-19.

Sawsan received her master’s degree with distinction from the College of Pharmacy, Qatar University in 2020. Prior to joining WCM-Q, her research interest focuses on health economics and outcome research. She had the opportunity to participate in undergraduate research projects, including the Undergraduate Research Experience Program, as well as she got awarded the Graduate Sponsorship Research Award by the Qatar National Research Fund. She was able to successfully publish several articles in peer reviewed journals

Curriculum Vitae

Aisha Osman is a Research Specialist at Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group (IDEG) at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q). She is currently conducting epidemiological research on sexually transmitted infections utilizing methodologies such as systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and meta-regressions.

Aisha obtained her MSc in Pharmacy with distinction from the College of Pharmacy, Qatar University in 2019. She studied the impact of endoplasmic reticulum stress on microparticle shedding from endothelial cells and biological messages carried out by the generated vesicles. She worked as a Graduate Assistant in the same college from 2016 to 2018 where she was involved in analyzing pharmaceutical research data, writing, and publishing research papers in international journals. She obtained her BSc from the same college in 2016 after winning the highly competitive H.H. the Amir of Qatar's Scholarship for Academic Excellence.

Asalah Alareeki is a Research Specialist at the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group (IDEG) at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q). She is currently working on epidemiological projects, both in a local and global context, researching infectious diseases including sexually transmitted infections through utilizing various methodologies such as systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and meta-regressions. Asalah is also involved in epidemiological studies investigating the trends of Diabetes Mellitus across the Middle East and North Africa region and ways to intervene to reduce and halt such trends using prediction models.

Asalah earned her Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of Alberta (Canada) and her Bachelor in Health Sciences (Hons) from the University of Calgary (Canada). Prior to joining WCM-Q, she was involved with projects in the fields of cancer, obesity, tobacco use, injury prevention, disability studies, and psychology.

Suelen Qassim currently holds the position of Postdoctoral Associate in Population Health Sciences at IDEG at Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar (WCM-Q). Her work involves applying research methods, epidemiological principles and biostatistical methods to tackle public health issues with a current focus on the epidemiology of COVID-19.

Suelen graduated from Jordan University of Science and Technology with a Bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery and completed a medical internship at Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar. Prior to joining WCM-Q, she completed her Masters of Public Health degree at Qatar University, in which she studied the burden of fragility fractures as well as their risk factors among the elderly population of Qatar.

Curriculum Vitae

Rayane El-Khoury is an Epidemiologist currently holding the position of a Research specialist at the Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Group (IDEG) at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q). She is involved in conducting research characterizing the epidemiology of infectious diseases. She is also conducting other statistical and epidemiological analyses.

Prior to joining WCM-Q, she worked at the clinical research institute (CRI) at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in clinical and translational research. Her research projects mainly focused on systematic reviews, and guideline methodology. She also contributed in the COVID-19 living map of recommendations and gateway to contextualization (RecMap), which is an international multi-institutional project led by McMaster University. The team successfully published on the COVID-19 pandemic and designed a tailored living evidence map of recommendations. Rayane earned her master’s degree in public health, concentrating in epidemiology and biostatistics from the American University of Beirut (AUB).

Curriculum Vitae

Heba Altarawneh is a postdoctoral associate at the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group (IDEG) at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q). She is also a member of the epidemiology analytics unit for the national COVID-19 response in Qatar, in addition to providing technical expertise to inform the global response including at the World Health Organization. Findings of her research have been published in leading journals, such as at the New England Journal of Medicine. Her research has been key in the formulation of public health policy at a national and international level and has been covered in the international media and press.

Heba obtained her MD with distinction from Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar in 2021 where she was involved in projects in the fields of multiple sclerosis, optical coherence tomography, and Parkinson’s disease.

Curriculum Vitae 

Alex Smolak is a Consultant with IDEG working on bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in MENA. His expertise lies in several areas of infectious disease epidemiology with emphasis on quantitative methods, such as analyses of large hierarchical datasets, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and meta-regressions. His analytical perspective stresses the importance of social structures and social determinants of health to understand disease patterns and barriers to uptake of interventions. He provides technical expertise on different aspects of the research and its translation to policy and programming products.

Alex’s scientific research has been published in leading specialty journals such as JAIDS and AIDS and Behavior. His commentary and work has received press in respected outlets such as Nature Middle East and the International AIDS Society. He has received funding from National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Fulbright among others. Most of his research has been conducted with Muslim populations in MENA, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. Alex completed his PhD degree in Social Work at Columbia University in 2013. He also holds a MPHIL in Social Work (2012) from Columbia University, Master of Social Work (2006) from University of Washington and B.A. in Psychology (2004) from The Evergreen State College.