Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month: Engineering and Math

Hey scholars! As we continue to celebrate Arab American Heritage Month, here are some engineers and mathematicians from the Arab community. 

Ahmed Zewali, was an Egyptian-American chemist, and 1999 Nobel Prize laureate. Born in Damanhur, Egypt, on February 26, 1946, Zewali became the first Egyptian to win a Nobel Prize in a scientific field, and the second African to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He served as the Linus Pauling Chair Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Physics, and the director of the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology at the California Institute of Technology. Zewali is known as the "father of femtochemistry," the study of chemical reactions across femtoseconds (one millionth of one billionth of a second). Zewali passed away at the age of 70. 

Amin J. Barakat, Lebanese-American physician, known for diagnosis of Barakat syndrome. Born in Mounsef, Byblos, Lebanon, Barakat completed his pediatric residencies at the American University of Beirut and Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Barakat's research focused on children with rare hereditary and congenital kidney disease. In 1977, Barakat, along with co-authors J.B. D'Albora, M.M. Martin, and P.A. Jose described four siblings with familial nephrosis, nerve deafness, and hypoparathyroidism - otherwise known as Barakat Syndrome. Barakat practiced pediatrics at Northern Virginia Pediatric Associates full-time before retiring in 2020.

M. Amin Arnaout, is a Lebanese physician-scientist and nephrologist, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and former Chief of Nephrology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is best known for seminal discoveries in the biology and structure of intern receptors. Dr. Arnaout's research has led to scientific observations that span from gene discovery to 3-dimensional protein structure to clinical translation. He was the first to determine the crystal structures of interns, and described the inherited deficiency in leukocyte adhesion in a lead article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Born on November 1, 1976 in Portland, Oregon to Saudi parents, Adah Almutairi, is a chemist and inventor, Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California. She is one of Forbes top ten most influential female Engineers in the world, and winner of the 2009 NIH director's new innovator award for her work on "Chemically Amplified Response Strategies for Medical Sciences." Her work focuses on nanomedicine, nanotechnology, chemistry and polymer science. Almutairi is the Founder of eLux Medical Inc. Her academic contributions to Pharmaceutical Sciences include: introducing the first polymeric nanoparticle to release drug in response to concentrations of hydrogen peroxide characteristic of inflammation; developing the first near infrared-degradable polymer, which enables precise remotely controlled delivery of molecules; creating an activatable MRI agent with unprecedented contrast between "on" and "off" states; and designing a polymeric nanoparticle that enables delivery to the cytosol by rapid degeneration upon exposure to mild acid. Dr. Almutairi currently serves as the director of excellence in Nanomedicine at UC San Diego, where she has been since 2008.

Ali H. Nayfeh, was a Palestinian-Jordanian-American mechanical engineer, and the inaugural winner of the Thomas K. Caughey Dynamics Award. Born to a poor Palestinian family on December 21, 1933, in the neighborhood of Shweikeh in Tulkarem city, in Mandatory Palestine, Nayfeh, worked as a math teacher in Jordan for 10 years before winning a scholarship at the age of 26 to study at Stanford University. Nayfeh received his B.S., M.S., and PhD in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University. Over four decades he made important contributions to a number of fields, including perturbation techniques, nonlinear oscillations, aerodynamics, flight mechanics, acoustics, ship motions, hydrodynamic stability, nonlinear waves, structural dynamos, experimental dynamics, linear and nonlinear control, and micromechanis, and fluid dynamics. Nayfeh passed away on March 27, 2017.

Charles Elachi, is a Lebanese-American professor for electrical engineering and planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, and former Center Director of NASA. Born April 18, 1947 in Rayak, Lebanon, Elachi went on to receive a second master's degree and doctorate in electrical sciences from CalTech. He also earned a master's degree in geology from UC Los Angeles, and an MBA from USC. During flight projects for NASA, Elachi was principal investigator for the shuttle Imaging Radar series, was a co-investigator on the Magellan imaging radar, current team leader of the Cassini Titan Radar experiment, and a co-investigator on the Rosetta Comet Nucleus Sounder Experiment. In 1989 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for pioneering developments of space-borne radars for imaging the earth and planets. In 1989, Asteroid 1982 SU was renamed 4116 Elachi in recognition of his contribution to planetary exploration.

Farouk El-Baz, is an Egyptian American space scientist and geologist who worked with NASA I the scientific exploration of the moon and the planning of the Apollo program. He was lead geologist, responsible for studying the geology of the moon, the selection of landing sites for the Apollo missions, and the training of astronauts in lunar observations and photography. El-Baz played a key role in the Apollo 11 moon landing, and later Apollo missions. He currently serves as Research Professor and Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, and an ad-junct professor of geology at the Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

Hunein Maassab, was a Syrian-American professor of Epidemiology, and the inventor of the Live attenuated influenza vaccine. Born on June 11, 1926, in Damascus, Syria, Maassab immigrated to the US in the late 1940's and began using the name "John." He received his BA and MA from the University of Missouri, and later his MPH, and PhD from the University of Michigan. Maassab worked at the University of Michigan Department of Epidemiology from 1956, where he served as assistant researcher, research associate, assistant professor, and full professor. From 1991-1997 he served as the epidemiology chairman, where he founded and became the first director of the school's Hospital for Molecular Epidemiology Program. in February 2003 he was named professor emeritus of epidemiology. He first isolated the influenza Type-A-Ann Arbor virus in 1960, and by 1967 had developed a cold-adapted virus. His research lasted 40 years and resulted in FluMist, a cold-adapted, live, attenuated, trivalent influenza virus vaccine. The vaccine was FDA approved in June 2003. Maassab passed away in 2014.