Postdoctoral Researcher Receives Royal Support
In academic research, the word "support" is frequently a synonym for funding. It also, less frequently, refers to encouragement received from colleagues, friends, and family. For many, support--in both senses--is slippery, held tightly one instant and lost the next.
Postdoctoral researchers are particularly sensitive to the instability of support. They're not students, nor are they faculty members. Their financial support is out of their control, usually dependent upon grants received by others.
The
tale of Eiman Al-Mutairi, a Saudi Arabian researcher in the department
of Environmental Health, started out as an all-too-common story. As a
post-doc, Al-Mutairi found funding from a patchwork of various and temporary
sources; money was always a source of anxiety. But this tale, like many
ancient tales from her homeland, held a surprise and a prince at the end.
Al-Mutairi came to HSPH last year as a Fulbright Scholar, in that longtime international exchange program that finances researchers in diverse fields. She had just earned her PhD in organic chemistry at Bristol University in England and wanted to move into the field of molecular biology.
With the 9-month Fulbright, she joined the research team headed by Joseph Paulauskis and John Godleski, associate professors in the Department of Environmental Health, investigating the health effects of inhaled air pollution particles. "Joe Paulauskis really gave me all of my training in molecular biology," she said. "I came as a pure chemist."
When the Fulbright ran out, Paulauskis and Godleski funded Al-Mutairi for another year through a grant. It was before she had to worry about funding again that Al-Mutairi's tale turned magical.
After a day at the lab, Al-Mutairi returned to her apartment and found a message on her telephone answering machine. She played the message and heard an Arabic voice. It was the secretary to Khalid Al-Faisal, the Prince of Saudi Arabia. The secretary said, "that the Prince had heard good things about my work," recounted Al-Mutairi, "and wanted me to travel to Riyadh to meet with him."
In Saudi Arabia last spring Al-Mutairi met with the Prince and his advisors with the King Faisal Foundation. The foundation gives annual prizes to outstanding international researchers in science, medicine, Arabic literature, Islamic studies, and service to Islam.
Prince Khalid Al-Faisal told Al-Mutairi that he was proud of her as a product of Saudi Arabia. He said that her accomplishments, both in England and at Harvard, were evidence to the world that the Saudi scientific achievement was high and that opportunities for women were unlimited.
The Prince announced that the foundation was creating a new scholarship program to fund doctoral-level researchers working on advanced research and that Al-Mutairi was to be the first recipient. The scholarship will contribute to her funding until she has completed her work at HSPH. The Prince also offered her his encouragement, saying that thus far, all of the winners of the King Faisal International Prize for Science were non-Saudi Arabian--she hopes that one day she will win this prize.
For her part, Al-Mutairi is humble. Doubtless she would like to receive the Faisal Prize, but for now she is happy to be investigating the pathology on the heart and lungs of inhaled metal-containing particles. "I'd like to stay here for at least a few more years to finish up the projects currently underway and learn more molecular biology," she said. "Afterwards, I will return to Saudi Arabia where I hope to head up a research effort at the King Faisal Foundation."
She also hopes to create opportunities for increased communication and collaboration between school researchers and those in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Mutairi described the state of science in Saudi Arabia as fairly strong. "We're not yet at the level of the US, but we're catching up. There are a number of research institutions and universities with research programs that are quite strong." Al-Mutairi explained that Islamic tradition causes boys and girls to be segregated and educated separately, but that this doesn't mean unequal opportunities. "There are about equal numbers of universities for women as there are for men," she said. In general, she thought, about 70 percent of Saudi Arabians who completed high school went on to college. In her class, she said, it was more like 100 percent; most of who sought further education in science.
Asked whether, when the royal office called to ask if she would return
to Saudi Arabia to meet with the Prince, she had any hesitation, she was appalled:
"Are you kidding? This is the Prince of Saudi Arabia! You don't say
'no,' you say you'll be on the next flight!"
