I was homeschooled (more accurately, self-taught) for the better part of my teenage years, and discovered my passion for psychology early on. I obtained my Bachelor in Behavioral Studies (Psychology) from Swinburne University of Technology (online), Melbourne, Australia at the age of 19. Then I completed a Master of Science in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Skövde, Sweden, under the supervision of Dr. Oskar MacGregor. During my time as a Master’s student, I was awarded the Global Swede Award by The Swedish Institute and the best Master’s Thesis in Cognitive Neuroscience for the year 2016 for my thesis entitled “Is the High Probability of Type II Error an Issue in Error Awareness ERP Studies?”. Afterwards, I was briefly a Guest Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in Leipzig, Germany, where I was part of the research project “Sentence processing in modern standard Arabic and Levantine dialect regarding syntax and semantics using fMRI” at the Department of Neuropsychology (Prof. Dr. Angela D. Friederici), Second Language Acquisition research group under the supervision of Dr. Tomás Goucha.
In 2017, I began my doctoral training at the Translational Research Center for Gastrointestinal Disorders (TARGID) at KU Leuven, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Kristin Verbeke, Prof. Dr. Lukas van Oudenhove, and Prof. Dr. Bram Vervliet. By combining my previous experience in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and having acquired the necessary skills in biomedical sciences during the early stages of my PhD, I conducted interdisciplinary research on the effects of dietary fiber and the role of short-chain fatty acids in the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Herein, I investigated the influence of nutrition-related interventions on a multitude of psychobiological outcomes in humans, particularly sensitivity to psychosocial stress and anxiety-related processes, with the aim of unveiling mechanisms of action. I defended my PhD in November 2021, and I am currently a post-doctoral researcher funded by the Postdoctoral Mandate (PDM) from KU Leuven. My current research dives deeper into the mechanisms of action (neural and peripheral) that facilitate the influence of short-chain fatty acids on psychobiological functioning in humans. Aside from that, I am particularly passionate about foreign languages and have utilized Arabic, Swedish, German, and currently Dutch, throughout my research career. When not doing science, I enjoy playing golf, graphic design, photography, and cooking.
Latest publications
When the mind says one thing, but the HPA axis says another: Lack of coherence between subjective and neuroendocrine stress response trajectories in healthy men
Dietary fibre and the gut–brain axis: microbiota-dependent and independent mechanisms of action