Bio

Dr. Rana N. Jawarneh joined Qatar University in Fall 2022 as Associate Professor of GIS and Remote Sensing in the Applied Geography and GIS program, Department of Humanities. Her research focuses on studying Spatiotemporal dynamics of land cover-land use, modeling urban growth, and assessing land degradation in semi-arid and dry ecosystems. Before joining Qatar University, Dr. Jawarneh worked as Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Yarmouk University, Jordan, where she made remarkable achievements at both teaching and research levels. She mentored the first and only YouthMappers Chapter (YUMappers) in the Middle East, contributing with her students to global humanitarian efforts through mapping. She also launched the YUGISDay in recognition of the international GISDay. She was the local coordinator for the Erasmus+ GEO4D project, which within its frame, a unique Applied Geoinformatics Master’s program was launched at Yarmouk University.

Dr. Jawarneh developed the first ever wall-to-wall decadal National Land Cover Database for Jordan (JNLCD), for which she was awarded the prestigious national prize for distinguished research in the humanities and national security fields by the Jordan Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. She also used the Cellular-automata SLEUTH model for the first time in Jordan to model past, present, and future urban growth impacts on agricultural land loss in northern Jordan. She recently co-authored a book entitled “Fundamentals of Geospatial Data Analysis.” She publishes her research in prestigious ISI journals.

Dr. Rana is a keen researcher and committed educator who thrives on new opportunities and challenges.  She continues implementing her knowledge and expertise to serve the Qatar University community and contributing to achieving its vision through extensive research, academic and community collaboration, networking, internationalization, and teaching efforts. She will utilize geospatial technologies to tackle human-environment interactions and environmental sustainability in the State of Qatar and other Gulf countries.