Introduction
Samira Ibrahim Islam is a Saudi pharmacologist and scholar. She heads King Fahd Medical Research Center's Drug Monitoring Unit at King Abdulaziz University. She was instrumental in securing formal university education for women in Saudi Arabia.
Biography
Following her secondary education, Islam was sent to Egypt to finish her schooling. She was the first Saudi woman to earn a Ph.D in philosophy. Beginning in 1971 she volunteered to lecture at King Abdulaziz University. She was appointed Academic Advisor for the girl's section of the Makkah and Jeddah branches of the university in 1973. She worked to establish formal university education for Saudi women. She became vice dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1974.
Islam investigated drug metabolism as it pertained to the Saudi population. She founded and heads the Drug Monitoring Unit of King Fahd Medical Research Center at King Abdulaziz University. She was the first person from Saudi Arabia to become a full professor in pharmacology in 1983. Islam is on the board of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation.
Islam received a Makkah Award of Excellence for her research on the effects and impact of medication on Saudis.