Hey there! I’m Ayat Abourashed, and I will be joining Viruskenner and the citizen science project as an OHPACT PhD candidate.
I have always thought as myself as a teacher: I taught university-level Biology for two years and then moved to Indonesia to teach English for a year. In Indonesia, I enjoyed the creating educational strategies in low-resource high schools, but I also gained a newfound curiosity for global public health. This led me to complete an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master of Science in Infectious Diseases and One Health all over Europe and work at Center for Epidemiological Studies on Infections for Sexual Transmission and AIDS in Catalonia to study HIV-associated coinfections in hospitalized HIV patients across Spain.
As an advocate for health education, teaching youth and the public the science behind diseases is a central step in preventing disease spread. For this project, I hope to make science an accessible language to actively involve and excite younger generations and make them a crucial community within the scientific sphere to block disease spread. Younger minds have a great talent for innovation and awareness. Thus, we should really look to younger people and respect their ideas that can aid in disease prevention and control.