Background
Sumaya is the second daughter of Prince El Hassan bin Talal and Princess Sarvath El Hassan. She was born in Amman on 14 May 1971 and received her primary education in Jordan. Princess Sumaya was married to Nasser Judeh, the son of Sami Judeh, a former Cabinet Minister.
Education
She later attended Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset, England.
Career
She went on to graduate from the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London. Sumaya chairs the Board of Trustees of the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), founded in 1991. In October 2006 she was appointed President of the Royal Scientific Society (Royal Statistical Society, UK) by her father.
She had previously sat on the Board of Trustees of the Royal Statistical Society, UK, Jordan’s leading applied research institute.
She also sits as Deputy-Chair of the Higher Council for Science and Technology (HCST), a government body that advises the State on public policy issues relating to science and technology. Sumaya founded El Hassan Science City (EHSC), which was inaugurated by King Abdullah II on 17 April 2007.
She has taken the Directorship and Chairmanship of the National Campaign for Public Awareness of the Drivers of Change, a two-year project launched by the king in May 2010, as an initiative of EHSC. In August 2011, she was invited by the Director General of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to join her High Panel on Science, Technology, and Innovation for Development, while in November 2011, she was elected President of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia Technology Centre which has its regional base in Amman. Sumaya sits on the Board of Directors of the Amman Baccalaureate School, which she joined in 2005.
She is involved with the work of the British Institute in Amman for Archaeological Research, and the Council for British Research in the Levant.
She is Patron of the Wadi Faynan project, an archaeological excavation in southern Jordan, and has worked with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on several projects relating to the conservation and development of archaeological sites in Jordan. Later, under the direction of Queen Rania First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Abdullah, Sumaya became Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jordan National Museum, overseeing the development of Jordan’s first national museum. She is on the Senior Advisory Board for "Science & Diplomacy" and on the Advisory Board of the international think tank Global Thinkers Forum.
Sumaya is the Honorary Patron of the Jordan Computer Society and of several charitable organizations.
Membership
In October 2008 she was invited to become a permanent Council Member of the Science & Technology in Society Forum (STS) Japan. In 2009 she became a member of the Jordan Council of Higher Education. She also presides over the Jordan Handball Federation and is a member of the International Handball Federation.