Meet Hanan Abu Hassan

Meet Hanan Abu Hassan, 23, from the town of Tarshiha in Israel’s north, who is completing her MSc degree in Biotechnology at Bar-Ilan University’s Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences. Hanan is researching Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), a human cancer virus, in the lab of Prof. Ronit Sarid. For two consecutive years, Hanan has won scholarships from the Council for Higher Education in Israel for outstanding graduate research students from the Arab minority in Israel. She has mentored a student from the Arab sector, and has assisted in a freshman course in the Goodman Faculty. During the Covid-19 outbreak, she was employed by the Ministry of Health in a Corona Testing Laboratory at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya. Hanan, who holds a BSc in Biotechnology from Bar-Ilan, answered our questionnaire.

Why I chose to study this area:

The combination of technology and biology has always fascinated me, ever since my school days, when I studied in the biotechnology track. The field of biology is particularly broad – there are always new and interesting things to learn and to deepen our understanding. The research path, in my opinion, is the most important in every field, and specifically in biology. With every epidemic, one must, first and foremost, explore its causes in order to ultimately find the solution. Any findings in this area can add another milestone along the way to the desired objective.

What I enjoy most at BIU:

To succeed in the experiment, to get interesting results that can advance the field! In addition, the freedom to build my schedule in a way that best suits me. I enjoyed becoming acquainted with new friends, especially my research partners at the lab.

Future plans:

I connect with my field and especially with my project, and that’s why I am going to pursue my PhD with Prof. Ronit Sarid.

My favorite corner on campus:

The benches in the plaza by the Central Library, especially in the spring when everything is in bloom!

What I will take with me from my Bar-Ilan studies:

Patience, knowledge and experience with various methods that can help me down the road, independence and perseverance. I learned not to give up and that there is always a way to succeed. Each day is a new opportunity to get new information and to take another step forward.