A wealth of academic achievements and years of leadership experience have earned EVDS PhD Candidate Maha Al-Zu'bi the Eyes High Leadership Doctoral Scholarship, one of the University of Calgary's most prestigious leadership awards.
The Eyes High Leadership Doctoral Scholarship was established in support of the University of Calgary's Eyes High vision of becoming one of the top five research Universities in Canada. The award is aimed at attracting the best and brightest doctoral students. The scholarship was awarded to Maha in recognition of her recent nomination by the Graduate Scholarship Committee at the University of Calgary for the prestigious federal Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship competition.
In addition to her outstanding academic achievements, Maha has extensive involvement managing internationally-funded projects, and is actively fostering interdisciplinary approaches to real-world energy and environmental issues. Having a long-standing interest in the interplay between environment, development, and policy, she has always demonstrated commitment in supporting organizations and initiatives that strive to improve livelihoods, protect the environment, and secure peaceful relationships.
Maha earned her Master's degree in Environmental Science Management in 2001 from the University of Jordan. Between 2002 and 2011, she worked as a head of the Environment and Climate Change Portfolio at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Jordan Country office and as a director of the Projects Department in Jordan's Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation.
She started her PhD degree at UofC in 2012, specializing in Environmental Design and Energy Environmental Systems. Since then, she became involved with the university community through volunteering as the PhD delegate of the EVDS Student Association. In this role, Maha successfully organized the first and second EVDS PhD Research Forum, which brings together graduate students from across disciplines with community partners to discuss environmental challenges. Additionally, she is a member of the University's Middle East Regional Advisory Council.
With her Eyes High Scholarship, Maha will continue to conduct her research in the Middle East region, focusing on the Arab States. She plans to critically evaluate existing local policies and governance, and investigate challenges, opportunities, primary driving factors for climate change, and the water-energy-food nexus, with the goal to propose local policy and principles for governance of climate change adaptation and mitigation.