Dr Martine Abboud is currently a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Lebanese American University, where she received the President’s Award for academic excellence and leadership skills. As Sir Hans Krebs Memorial Scholar, she carried out her doctoral studies under the supervision and guidance of Prof Christopher Schofield, FRS, and Prof Timothy Claridge at the Department of Chemistry, Oxford. Soon after graduation, she was granted a Junior Research Fellowship from Kellogg College, Oxford.
Martine believes in the power of interdisciplinary science; accordingly, her work focused on the development of biophysical/chemical techniques to address biological questions of therapeutic relevance. Her NMR work unraveled important mechanistic features of the metallo-β-lactamases involved in antimicrobial resistance and provided valuable information about the substrate selectivity of the dioxygenases involved in oxygen sensing. She was awarded a Thesis Commendation from the Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences Division, Oxford, for ‘exceptional’ performance. Martine believes that collaborations are at the heart of success in science, as evidenced by >30 papers published with groups in the UK, Europe, Lebanon, New Zealand, USA, and Canada.
As an Arab woman in science and a first-generation graduate, Martine has been involved in fostering diversity in the chemical environment by sitting on various consultative and executive committees, acting as a student advisor, and delivering engaging outreach talks at state schools. She has also been engaging the public with research via active science communication and event organizations, including tech-based lectures in under-developed countries to raise awareness about global health issues, including antibiotic misuse.
Martine has won several prestigious awards (from both academia and industry) in recognition of her work to date, among them are a Pfizer-sponsored award in the doctoral poster symposium at Oxford Chemistry in 2015 and a Hans Neurath Outstanding Promise Travel Award from the Protein Society, USA. She has represented the University of Oxford at the 68th Lindau-Nobel Laureates Meeting, received the first ever Eddy Fischer Lindau Fellowship from the Vallee Foundation, and was selected as a leading young scientist by Baden-Württemberg International. Martine was named a Future Leader by the American Chemical Society CAS SciFinder® program. With an entrepreneurial mindset, she would like to start her independent academic group working at the interface of biology, chemistry, and physics.
