UBADAH SABBAGHWhen asked where home is, Ubadah Sabbagh hesitated. It’s a difficult question for a man who grew up moving to a different country every few years and whose family is now spread across the Middle East. After a pause, he said, “I don’t really have an answer to that. . . . I don’t really long for anywhere. I would like to make my home here.”
“Here” is the United States, where Sabbagh is pursuing a PhD in neuroscience (he’s in his first year in the Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health program at Virginia Tech). After finishing rotations, he will join the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute lab of Michael Fox, who studies synaptogenesis.
The seven years Sabbagh has spent in the states is the longest he’s lived in any one country. “This is where I’m invested,” he told The Scientist. Sabbagh was born in Saudi Arabia, but his family relocated around the Middle East for his parents’ work (his mother was a teacher, now an administrator, and his father is a businessperson). Before he left for Kansas at age 16, he was living in the United Arab Emirates (his passport ...
