Lana Alabbasi

Biography

Lana Alabbasi is an astrophysics researcher and science education advocate from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She is a first-year DPhil (PhD) student in Astrophysics, where her research focuses on black holes and gravitational waves. Lana became the first Saudi to be named a National Geographic Young Explorer and the first Saudi to join the LIGO Laboratory international collaboration, which made the historic discovery of gravitational waves, after receiving a research fellowship award at Caltech. Beyond her research, Lana is deeply committed to empowering young women to pursue careers in science. She is the founder and director of the Falak Research Program, Saudi Arabia’s first space research mentorship initiative, which connected young Saudi women with leading scientists worldwide. Under her leadership, Falak has guided participants in producing 14 original space-related research projects. Lana’s work bridges cutting-edge astrophysics and community empowerment. She is a passionate advocate for fundamental scientific research as a catalyst for transformative progress and continues to expand opportunities for Saudi women to actively contribute to global efforts to understand the universe.