If microbiologist Hanaa Habboubi and her colleagues are successful, Saudi Aramco will be getting millions of new workers.

They won’t have names or badge numbers, but they will have a voracious appetite for sulphur, and they won’t add work for human resources because they aren’t human. They are microscopic bacteria being adapted in the Research and Development Center to become the hungriest little sulphur eaters in the world.
Habboubi is a member of the Biotechnology Group, which is looking through microscopes at tiny organisms and even DNA molecules for solutions to some of the company’s challenges.
Crude oil often contains sulphur, which has to be removed during refining. If you can find and improve the right strain of bacteria, oil storage tanks can become huge dining halls with one thing on the menu - sulphur.
Habboubi’s family hails from Madinah, and though she was born in Dhahran, she spent time in Madinah before marrying and returning to the Eastern Province. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the College of Science in Dammam and went on to get a master’s degree in molecular biology from Arabian Gulf University in Bahrain. Now she’s working on a doctorate from Essex University in London.
“I always wanted to be a scientist,” she says. “Even at a very young age, biology was my passion.” But it is a passion that does not consume her. She and her husband have two boys. One is an accomplished tennis player, the other one takes a keen interest in science.
The couple soon will have a third child. “I have had to learn how to manage my time between my work and my personal life,” she says. An avid reader and pianist, Habboubi credits those around her for helping her to achieve success.
“Thankfully, I’ve never been discouraged,” she says. “My family is very supportive; they have always been so, and I’m very fortunate for that. She also acknowledged the company’s support. “Saudi Aramco encourages women to take forward steps. That has helped a lot, too.”
As she carefully studies the microcosm of bacteria and DNA, hoping to sate tiny appetites and save Saudi Aramco millions of dollars in desulphurisation costs, she also is contemplating the macrocosm of Saudi Arabia and making plans after retirement to help her millions of Saudi sisters sate their appetites for personal achievement.
“I want to give back to my community,” Habboubi says. “I would like to open a knowledge-sharing club for Saudi women. It is important for me to see women excel in my country.”
While the Biotechnology Group’s research and the kingdom’s vast oil reserves may make those tiny bacterial appetites satiable, Habboubi is driven by something equally insatiable.
“I promised myself one thing,” she says. “I will always challenge myself.”