Fatima Al-Zahraa Al-Mheiri

UAE's youngest aerospace engineer leading Mars exploration missions.

Fatima Al-Zahraa Al-Mheiri is a pioneering Emirati aerospace engineer and mission director of the Hope Probe, the first Arab mission to Mars. Born in 1993, she became the youngest Arab woman to earn a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Manchester (2019). In 2020, she co-led the UAE's Mars 2117 Strategy, aiming to establish a human colony on Mars. Her team's breakthrough in designing the Hope Probe's thermal protection system allowed unprecedented data collection on Martian weather patterns. Al-Mheiri's work has been featured in National Geographic's "Mission Mars" documentary series. She also founded Mars Academy, training over 1,000 Arab youth in STEM fields. Her 2023 book "To Mars and Back" details her journey and vision for interplanetary exploration. Al-Mheiri's achievements earned her the UN Women's Award for inspiring girls in STEM (2022), cementing her as a global icon of scientific innovation.