Zheen Salih Abdullah

American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) · Minor: Business Administration · GPA 3.20 / 4.00

• IELTS 8.5 (C2)
• Cambridge A-Levels: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English
• AS-Level: Psychology

National Geographic Society & The Nature Conservancy

• Competitive externship on the Khasa River Basin — fieldwork, GIS, oral histories, and policy analysis across Sulaymaniyah, Sitak, Dukan, and Baghdad.
• Identified knowledge–policymaking gaps in regional conservation planning.
• Awarded USD 2,000 seed funding (January 2026) to continue and scale the project.

Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (BMSIS) × NASA

• Research at the intersection of AI, ethics, and science communication.
• Co-authored public outreach materials bridging NASA mission science with accessible narrative.

European Center for Research & Consultancy (ECRC) · Peer-reviewed publication

• Analyzed deceptive design practices in Iraqi digital platforms and their impact on consumer trust and decision-making.

HelloFuture · Recognized for best research and most actionable recommendations

The AUIS Voice — Iraq's first independent English-language student newspaper

• MoonWalkers: science-optimism essay on Artemis II and human spaceflight, developed from BMSIS × NASA science communication research.
• Try Not to Think of It: argument on hope as cognitive process, synthesizing Snyder's Hope Theory and Wegner's Ironic Process Theory.

Citizen science & community archive · storiesofkhasa.xyz

• Trilingual citizen science and oral history project documenting the Khasa River in Kirkuk.
• Produced It Doesn't Travel Downstream — a trilingual ArcGIS StoryMap integrating GIS data, oral histories, field photography, and water science.
• Coordinated a seven-person field day in Kirkuk with deliverables spanning oral history recordings, GIS mapping, and water quality documentation.

Backend & AI Lead

• Women-led startup building a multilingual (Kurdish, Arabic, English) mobile health assistant for the Kurdistan Region.
• Privacy-conscious, low-bandwidth architecture addressing medical record fragmentation and patient trust.

• Python-based multimodal science explainer platform (text, voice, image) via OpenAI and Pexels APIs.
• Evolved from BMSIS × NASA science communication work — see PopSci AI on this site.

Four clubs co-led across campus

• Wikimedians Club (Wikimedia Iraq): edit-a-thons expanding Kurdish Wikipedia; training in open-knowledge contribution and digital archiving.
• CyberProject Club: cybersecurity workshops, CTF competitions, and digital safety awareness.
• Creative Writing Club: workshops, critique circles, and published student work.
• Grey Area Club: entrepreneurship and technology talks.