Dr Nouf is a Saudi scientist from Riyadh. She attended King Saud University (KSU) and finished her Bachelor’s degree with honors, before moving to the United Kingdom and starting on a new career path that made her into the exceptional scientist she is today.
She discovered her passion for genetics early on and was determined to study the subject in more depth and from a different perspective, by merging molecular genetics with computer programming. Despite the challenges of not having any available courses in Saudi at that time and coping with many people telling her that merging two or more sciences was too difficult, she took her chances and went to experience it herself so that she could make her dreams come true!
She is now one of the first Saudi scientists majoring in molecular genetics and programming biologic information (Bioinformatics). This specialty is a very precise science that enables us to read the future of diseases before they come into existence through genetic mutation. The ability to predict the effects of mutations lends itself toward a personalized medicine approach to treatment. Nouf uses more than seven programming languages to analyze human genes and has successfully published several papers and spoken at many international conferences.
Today, Dr Nouf works as a Bioinformatics & Molecular Genetics Scientist in KFSHRC, and an Assistant Professor, College of Medicine at Alafia University. She is also a Visiting Researcher at UCL, The Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology (ISMB).
In 2014, in London, Dr Nouf was honored by the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia, His Royal Highness Prince Nawaz bin Abdulaziz, during a celebration at the Saudi Embassy to honor outstanding students who received awards of excellence in the United Kingdom in recognition of their scientific achievements. The Ambassador said, "We have every reason to be proud of Nouf Alnumair.” The United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, noted on Twitter that "Nouf Al-Numair is a young Saudi girl I am very proud of.” Authors wrote about her, "Nouf Alnumair is a model we are all proud of and she is a powerful reply to the advocates of applying constraints on Saudi women”.
Dr Nouf says, "In the world of science there is no first or last place ... no start nor end. Just imagine it as a huge painting on a seemingly endless wall, and every scientist that walks next to this wall contributes to the painting; from a well-defined drawing to a micrometer-sized dot!” - Nouf Alnumair, 2015
Mottos in life:
“Decide...Commit...Succeed”,
“Knowledge is POWER”.
You can follow her latest news on twitter @NoufAlNumair