Organic chemistry lab
Early conversations around extracting and studying natural products, including myrrh and nutmeg, and questioning their potential medicinal significance.
Independent scientific circle · Origins in 2016
CHEM
CHEM
SQUAD.
Ten years of talking chemistry.
We met around an organic chemistry bench in 2016, discussing extracts from myrrh and nutmeg and what it would take to identify their constituents. We kept meeting after the course ended. Ten years later, seven of us still gather weekly to argue over papers, discuss experiments and bring new questions from different laboratories.
Read how it beganResearch documentary / Chem Squad & scientific community
The Laboratory We Carried With Us
A human history of independent scientific friendships and a student chemistry movement.
Watch the documentary ↗ · 02:00 · Early friendships, chemistry festivals and student organizing.
2016Where our shared research story began
SevenChemistry graduates in the circle
WeeklyConversations that keep science alive
01 / The beginningBefore the publications,
Before the publications,
there was a laboratory.
In 2016, our organic chemistry conversations kept returning to myrrh and nutmeg. We wanted to understand how their constituents could be extracted and identified. The plants had long medicinal histories, but those histories could not tell us which compounds were present in a sample or whether an extract had biological activity.
We talked through the practical questions: solvent selection, separation, chromatography and the assays that would be needed before making a medicinal claim. Those discussions often continued after we had left the laboratory.
After graduation, we entered different research groups and professions. We continued sending each other papers, questioning methods and returning to ideas that had first come up in class.
We continued meeting after our original laboratory coursework, bringing new papers and research questions from the institutions and specialties we had entered.
Beyond one laboratory
Our research took us into different institutions and specialties. The conversations continued after we left the same department.
The weekly conversation
We continue to gather to discuss papers, research questions and developing ideas for the pleasure of learning together. Some friendships remain scientific long after graduation.
02 / The peopleSeven chemists.
Seven chemists.
Still curious.
We followed different paths after university, but the papers and experiment ideas kept circulating among us. When we meet, nobody has to explain why they still care about a chemistry problem.
Seven people have kept this conversation alive since 2016.
Mahmoud K.
Al-Ruweidi
Chem Squad · MemberMohamed G.
Nassr
Chem Squad · Member
CS / 03Second photo ↗Abdelrahman Adel
Mahmoud
Chem Squad · Member
CS / 04Khaled Jama
Mohamoud
Chem Squad · MemberRakan
Al-Zu'Bi
Chem Squad · MemberAbdelgalil Khalaf
Ahmed
Chem Squad · Member
CS / 07Ahmed
Elgendy
Chem Squad · MemberFrom the photo archive
Photographs from our years together
Mohamed G. Nassr
With Mahmoud K. Al-Ruweidi · Two photographs
Rakan Al-Zu'Bi
With Mahmoud K. Al-Ruweidi · Two photographs
A moment from 2017 · Washington, DC
Between ACS sessions,
Between ACS sessions,
looking up.
Mahmoud K. Al-Ruweidi and Ahmed Elgendy watching the 2017 solar eclipse outside the Walter E. Washington Convention Center during the American Chemical Society visit. The image comes from an ACS Qatar University student chapter Instagram post. We stepped outside between the conference sessions to watch the eclipse.
ACS Qatar University student chapter · 201703 / A standing conversationOnce a week,
Once a week,
science has a seat.
The weekly gatherings are not conferences, compulsory seminars or a commercial programme. They are a place where scientists can talk without needing a deliverable before the conversation is worth having. A paper, a synthetic route, a strange result, or a speculative hypothesis can all be reasons to bring everyone together.
Independent thought benefits from company. The questions become sharper when someone else is willing to disagree, suggest an experiment, or expose an assumption that seemed obvious.
Bring a question.
Anything from reaction chemistry and natural products to a biomedical or pharmaceutical puzzle.
Follow the evidence.
Talk through mechanisms, methods, contradictory findings and the literature behind a claim.
Think beyond your own field.
One person's chemistry problem may connect to another's interest in biology, materials or therapeutic design.
Keep the conversation alive.
Not every discussion needs to become a publication. Sometimes the reward is a better understanding.
04 / From one subject to manyOur interests have
01 / Roots
02 / Molecules
03 / Materials
04 / Evidence
05 / Methods
06 / People
Our interests have
grown with us.
We trained in chemistry together, but our work has since taken different directions. The subjects below come from individual projects, independent collaborations and questions we still bring back to the group.
Organic chemistry & natural products
Extraction, chemical identity, molecular transformation and the evaluation of proposed biological activity.
Medicinal & pharmaceutical chemistry
Structure–activity reasoning, therapeutic hypotheses, drug properties and design questions.
Formulations & biomaterials
Carrier systems, polymer-based technologies and the relationship between material properties and performance.
Research papers & scientific writing
Literature evaluation, collaboration across projects and turning methods and ideas into carefully argued scholarship.
Quantitative & computational thinking
How data analysis, modelling and experimental design can improve the interpretation of chemical and biomedical questions.
Education & scientific exchange
Sharing knowledge, mentoring, communicating difficult ideas and making science a continuing conversation.
05 / Where the paths ledSeparate careers.
Explore Mahmoud's educational initiatives
Separate careers.
A shared beginning.
From the same organic chemistry laboratory, we eventually followed different academic and professional paths. Five of the seven pursued master's-level study: four in Qatar and Ahmed Elgendy in Canada. Our interests expanded into fields including environmental science and solar-cell research, while education became another direction represented in the circle. The original foundation in chemistry remained, but the questions each person brought back grew more varied.
Someone might bring a chemistry problem to the table while another is thinking about biology or engineering. We still meet to exchange papers and challenge interpretations, drawing on the work each of us has pursued.
Some members of the circle are also among the founding members of Majales Education. That connection reflects how a long friendship in science can extend into educational entrepreneurship, while Chem Squad remains its own informal community.
Still meeting after ten years
The conversation carried on after the laboratory course ended.
Someone brings a new paper. Someone else challenges its assumptions. An idea for an experiment moves around the room until we can see what would actually have to be measured.
Our work has taken us into different fields. We still come back to the same table.
CHEM SQUAD · SINCE 2016How Chem Squad works
Chem Squad, since 2016.
Chem Squad began as a circle of chemistry students who continued meeting as graduates and researchers. We discuss ideas independently; experiments and papers belong to the researchers and institutions that carry them out. Our early interest in medicinal plants led to questions about composition and biological testing that still require appropriate experimental evidence.
The photographs and accounts here follow the group's early laboratory discussions, friendships and later meetings. Where a member has published research, the individual paper and its authors provide the scientific record.