Celebrate All Scientists: Dr. Rana Dajani
April is Arab American Heritage Month and today LSC is celebrating Rana Dajani, PhD, a stem cell researcher and native of Jordan.
Stem cells are a versatile building material in the human body. They are cells from which many different kinds of cells with specialized functions are created. Rana Dajani’s research focuses on stem cells’ role in diabetes and cancer. She received her PhD in molecular cell biology from the University of Iowa.
Not only does she conduct outstanding research as a scientist, she has authored many works related to education and women in the Arab world. She is on the Arabian Business list “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Arab Women” and she was among seven Fulbright alumni to receive the inaugural IIE Global Changemaker Award in 2017.
Dajani is devoted to illuminating the challenges that women face in academia, and how those challenges vary across cultures, religions, and disciplines. She is also the founder and director of the nongovernmental organization We Love Reading, to encourage science literacy, for which she has earned the Library of Congress Literacy Award Best Practices.
“We need to change mindsets,” she says, “to create changemakers who can create sustainable change at the grassroots.”
Click here to learn more about Arab American Heritage Month.
