5 groundbreaking Saudi women in science and medicine

Saudi women have been blowing minds around the world with their superb work. In science and in medicine, the following doctors and scientists have contributed immensely to their fields. Their achievements transcend Saudi Arabia and touch the world.

A King's College pharmacology graduate, Dr. Sindi's constant work on medical care and biotechnology – the subject of her Cambridge PhD – landed her top positions among the most influential Arab women, according to Newsweek and Arabian Business. As a visiting scholar at Harvard University and an UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for promoting science in the Middle East, she divides her time between Jeddah, Boston and Cambridge. She is an innovation entrepreneur and in January 2013, Dr. Sindi was one of the first women to join the Saudi Arabian Consultative Council.

Since her self-diagnosis with breast cancer in 2006, Dr. Amoudi has raised significant awareness through regular columns at national newspapers and by writing more than 12 books on the disease. She has become a cancer specialist and an activist, besides being a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist.

Being one of the first Saudi women to obtain a bachelor and a doctorate degree, claiming an official position at the World Health Organization (WHO), heading King Fahd Medical Research Center's Drug Monitoring Unit, establishing schooling systems for Saudi girls and receiving an UNESCO Award for Science, all make Dr. Islam a source of pride for Saudi women.

As a physician and pathology professor, Dr. Al Khuray broke through when she was the first to discover the cancer-triggering FOSM1 gene in the human body. She is currently a cancer specialist at King Faysal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre. Khuray is also doing big things in Saudi Arabia's Shoura Council.

Dr. Almutairi's achievement of introducing the first nanoparticle that responds to inflammation in the body, amongst others, led to her post as director of excellence in nanomedicine at the University of California, San Diego. She was also awarded the National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award in 2009, after completing her postgraduate studies in chemistry and chemical engineering at University of California Berkeley. Dr. Almutairi has been recognized by U.S. President Barack Obama for her work and has been invited to lecture and speak worldwide.