Speaker Details
Dr.
Islam
Hussein
Virologist & Science Communicator
Country:
Egypt
Biography:
Dr. Islam Hussein is a virologist and science communicator. He obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Master’s degrees from Zagazig University, Egypt, in 1999 and 2003, respectively. He worked as a teaching assistant, then associate lecturer of virology in the same university (2000 – 2003). He then earned his doctorate degree from the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2007. His thesis work focused on the preclinical development of antiviral drugs. He did his postdoctoral training at the US National Institutes of Health and Kansas University Medical Center. He then worked as research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied the evolution, transmissibility and pathogenicity of avian influenza viruses. Currently, he is a Senior Scientist at Microbiotix, a bio-pharmaceutical company specialized in antimicrobial drug discovery. His research efforts are distributed among the clinical development of an anti-human cytomegalovirus drug and other discovery projects targeting several viruses, such as influenza, ebola and zika. He authored numerous peer-reviewed research articles, reviews and book chapters. He also delivered several lectures, interactive webinars and blog posts targeting science enthusiasts in the Middle East. He is a science vlogger (video blogger) and the founder a YouTube channel, called “Virolvlog”, communicating the science of virology to the general public. Collectively, his videos gathered around one million views. He was an Invited commentator on viral disease issues of public health interest on BBC Arabic, Skynews Arabia, HuffPost Arabi, Scientific American and Al-Taqadom Al-Elmi magazine. He was an invited speaker at TEDxCairo 2015, Harvard Arab Weekend 2015 and 2016. His work was featured on Science magazine and ASM’s Culture magazine. He was listed by Nature Middle East as one of top 6 science communicators in the Arab world. He served on the Arab Knowledge Index panel at the UN headquarters, and currently he is a member of the communication committee of the American Society for Microbiology.
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