Nora Khaldi, Mathematician and Chief Scientist

With a mixed background of Irish, French and North African decent, Dr. Nora Khaldi is an award-winning speaker and well-published mathematician and scientist. She loves solving complicated problems and working on the edge of scientific discovery. Her innovative ideas and inventions have been recognized by the likes of the EU Commission, WIRED, TEDx and Forbes.

In 2014, Nora founded Nuritas, the first company in the world to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) and DNA analysis to the food arena. Her goal is to find specific molecules in food that can be used to prevent and cure diseases such as Diabetes. With a PhD from Trinity College Dublin in molecular evolution and bioinformatics, Khaldi insists that “Achievements are relative; I set goals every month and once something is achieved it’s quickly replaced with another goal. In science there's always the next problem to solve.”

A quarter of people working in Ireland’s STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] industries are women. That’s about the same as in the US, but less than the EU-28 where the figure is between 32% (for those employed in high-tech, knowledge-intensive industries) and 40% (for scientists and engineers generally). When it comes to starting their own business (in any sector), women in Ireland are more likely to do this than the EU average, but still less likely than men in Ireland. All of which makes Norah Khaldi’s achievement exceptional.

Photo: Beta Bajgart