Amer Ahmed Al-Qaaod is a collaborative physicist with more than eight years of international experience, who is researching in reactor physics, nuclear systems design, particle transport simulations, application in low energy neutron physics, dosimetry and radiation shielding-detection modelling. He completed his doctoral and post-doctoral training in nuclear physics in Cairo, Egypt, and then moved to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, where he started a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in 2018. During his fellowship, he worked as a consultant in shielding design in the Nuclear Science and Instrumentation Laboratory, part of the Physical and Chemical Science Division at the International Atomic Energy Agency, before moving to the German National Metrology Institute (PTB), in September 2020. He is an expert in Monte Carlo simulation tools for modelling nuclear processes, Python programming language, and has a solid knowledge of radiation measurements equipment. He published more than 10 peer-reviewed publications and one scientific book in particle physics, and delivered oral and poster presentations at several international conferences.

I grew up in a small village in Yemen. I obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics from Cairo University (Egypt) in 2004 and then worked for the National Atomic Energy Commission (Sana'a-Yemen) in 2005. Then I received my Master and PhD in Theoretical Nuclear Physics from Cairo University (Egypt) in 2009 and 2014, respectively. My research interests are focused on deepening our understanding of nuclear reaction theories. I am interested in scattering, breakup, and reactions of exotic nuclei. In addition, I am working on the energy and mass dependencies of the microscopic optical and dynamical potentials. Permanently, since 2010, I am working at Taiz University (Yemen). In 2018-2020, Philadelphia University (Jordan) hosted my fellowship awarded from the Institute of International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF). In 2020-2022, I was a researcher at Heavy Ion Laboratory, University of Warsaw (Poland) funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA). Currently, I am a research fellow at the Nuclear Physics Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, the University of Manchester (UK), funded by the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara).

Mohammed Almahfali from Yemen is currently a researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden. He holds a PhD (2014) in modern Arabic literature, Arabic Language and Literature Department, Faculty of Art, Cairo University (Egypt). From 2017 to 2019 he worked as a researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, thanks to a fellowship received from the Institute of International Education, Scholar Rescue Fund SRF-IIE. In 2015 he served as the head of the Arabic Language Department, with the College of Education, Hadhramout University, Socotra Island, and was an assistant professor of modern literature and criticism. Almahfali authored and co-authored four books and more than 10 peer-reviewed scientific papers. His research interests include discourse analysis, capacity-building in higher education, and sustainable post-conflict recovery strategies to address the challenges in Yemen for the coming years. Particularly noteworthy is his dissemination activity: he is a regular contributor to the Arabi Website, where he deals with socio-political themes, human rights issues and war-related problems.