Dajani, Rana

Rana Dajani (Arabic: رنا الدجاني) is a Jordanian molecular biologist and tenured professor of biology and biotechnology at Hashemite University. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Iowa. Dajani is an expert on genetics of Circassian and Chechen populations in Jordan, also on conducting genome-wide association studies on diabetes and cancer on stem cells. Her work in stem cell research initiated the development of the Stem Cell Research Ethics Law and all regulations in Jordan. She is an advocate for the biological evolution theory in relation to the religion of Islam, and believes strongly in the education and empowerment of women, being a member of the United Nations Women Jordan Advisory Council. She is the recipient of the Jordan's Order of Al Hussein for Distinguished Contributions of the Second Class. Dajani is the president of the Society for Advancement of Science and Technology in the Arab World [5](SASTA). Dr. Dajani is a Fulbright scholar alumna, having received two awards. She was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and possessed an Eisenhower Fellowship as well. She is also a former Yale University visiting professor at the Yale Stem Cell Center and a visiting scholar at both the University of Cambridge and the Stem Cell Therapy Center in Jordan. She was the 2019-21 Zuzana Simoniova Cmelikova Visiting Scholar at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond Dr. Dajani is the founder and director of the non-governmental organization, "We Love Reading," a program which strives to foster a love of reading in young children beyond academics in the Arab world. Through We Love Reading, she has trained over 7000 women to read aloud in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria and established multiple libraries across Jordan. The UK-based Muslim Science Magazine[10] praised her as one of the most influential women scientists in the Islamic World; and Arabian Business lists Dajani as one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Arab Women," in which she ranked number thirteen.