Rana Dajani, PhD, is a Jordanian molecular biologist and social entrepreneur. She is among the most influential female scientists in the Islamic world and was included in the Women in Science Hall of Fame in 2015.

She is a full professor of Molecular Biology at Hashemite University, President of the Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology in the Arab World (SASTA), and President of the Jordan chapter of The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World.

She studies the epigenetic transmission of trauma, with a focus on resilience. In her book Five Scarves: doing the impossible – if we can reverse cell fate, why can’t we redefine success? she advocates a possible paradigm shift to pursue gender equality and plays five roles: mother of four, educator, scientist, social entrepreneur and Islamic feminist.

She founded the children’s literacy NGO We Love Reading, for which she won the 2020 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award for the Middle East and North Africa.

Among other appointments, she has been a Richard Von Weizsacker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Germany, a Zuzana Simoniova Cmelikova Visiting Scholar at the University of Richmond, a Rita Hauser Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, an Eisenhower fellow, a Fulbright visiting professor at Yale University, and a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge.