Khalifeh Al Jadda PhD ’14 doesn’t wait for opportunities. He creates them.
In the late 2000s, while teaching computer science at a university in Saudi Arabia, Al Jadda learned from a mentor that UGA was conducting research in data mining, the exact thing that most interested him. So he applied and got in.
While pursuing his doctoral degree, Al Jadda worked with UGA’s Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and describes the experience as “eye-opening.” He applied data science techniques to research being done to fight cancer and other diseases.
“What motivates me is always the impact of my work on people’s lives,” he says.
Fast forward almost a decade since graduating, and—through the power of networking—he’s now a director of data science at Google.