Lihadh Al-Gazali is an award-winning professor of Clinical Genetics and Paediatrics, with her pioneering work published in over 280 papers in prestigious international journals (PUBMED).

Having been profiled in the Lancet in March 2006 for her contribution to Clinical Genetics and research in the Middle East, she was also the 2008 UNESCO-L’OREAL award Laureate for Africa and Arab States for the identification of new inherited diseases.

Having obtained her medical degree (MBCHB) from Baghdad University in the early seventies and initially training in Paediatrics, she then moved to the UK (Edinburgh & Leeds) to specialise further in the pioneering field of Genetics.

Her primary research focus was on the Delineation of the Clinical and Molecular Basis of Autosomal Recessive Disorders, particularly those found in Arab populations.

In addition, she was featured in the Canadian Museum for Science and Technology, whose posters are now used in classrooms all over the world to encourage women to study and work in these fields [8].