Rate My Professor Habiba Alsafar

Professor Habiba Alsafar is an Emirati research scholar and academic at Khalifa University, where she serves as Professor and Dean of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from San Diego State University in the United States, a Master of Science in Medical Engineering from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Medical and Forensic Science from the University of Western Australia in Australia. She has also completed the Global Clinical Scholars Research Training program at Harvard Medical School. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a forensics expert for the Dubai Police and joined Khalifa University as an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in 2011, advancing through roles including Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Associate Dean of Student Affairs, and Director of the Khalifa University Center for Biotechnology.

Her primary research focuses on constructing the genomic structures of individuals of Arab descent to identify genomic segments associated with disease predisposition, with particular emphasis on conditions increasing in prevalence in the UAE. She led the first Genome Wide Association Study of the UAE Bedouin population, identifying a gene strongly linked to Type 2 diabetes among Emiratis, and contributed to the first whole genome sequence of Emirati subjects, insights into UAE population genetic diversity, and a reference genome for the UAE population. Professor Alsafar has received the International L’Oréal-UNESCO Fellowship for Women in Science, the UAE first honor model from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and membership in the UAE Science Council since 2016. In 2025, she was awarded Belgium’s Knight in the Order of Leopold, becoming the first UAE scientist to receive this distinction. She teaches courses in genetics, biochemistry, and forensic science and directs research projects including the Biomedical Science Discovery initiative and the characterization of the UAE genome for personalized medicine.