Dr Javaid Sheikh addresses the audience at the completion ceremony. RIGHT: Dr Khaled Machaca, and Yassir Hussain hand out graduation certificates.
A total of 7 interns of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) completed the Research Training Programme for Nationals recently.
The innovative programme offers graduates the opportunity to learn a comprehensive range of scientific research skills by working with WCMC-Q’s world-class faculty in the college’s state-of-the-art laboratories.
Dr Khaled Machaca, associate dean for Research at WCMC-Q, said that the programme offered a hands-on research experience that would prove invaluable to the interns in future.
He said: “The programme provides the trainees with a very strong and broad grounding in the essential skills they need to pursue successful careers in research, ranging from practical bench research skills through to design of research projects and research administration. I hope and am confident that this very accomplished group of interns has gained experience that will allow them to make very meaningful contributions to Qatar’s growing biomedical research community.”
Dr Machaca also thanked Dr Mohamed al-Thani, director of Public Health at the Supreme Council of Health, for his institution’s continued support for the programme.
The ceremony marked the completion of the fourth batch of the programme which runs from January to July each year at WCMC-Q. This year’s interns were Amera al-Saadoun, Ghada Saeed Mubarak, Sara Nasser al-Thani, Ayeda Ahmed, Noor Saad al-Hajri, Amna al-Thani and Alya Saleh al-Sulaiti.
Dr Javaid Sheikh, dean of WCMC-Q, praised the dedication of the interns and hailed the programme as a key element of the college’s commitment to build human capacity in scientific research in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.
He said: “Our mission as a college is not only to produce truly excellent clinicians, but also to help build the workforce Qatar needs to realise its bold and unique vision to become a world leader in the field of research and development. By completing this very rigorous and demanding programme, the interns have shown they have the potential to be crucial members of this new generation of scientific investigators.”
A total of 18 interns have now completed the programme since it was launched in 2011. The programme is overseen by Yassir Hussain, WCMC-Q’s nationals training programme co-ordinator, and Shaikha al-Qahtani, programme co-ordinator at WCMC-Q, who are both graduates of the programme.