Her Excellency Sarah Al Amiri, the country’s first Minister of State for Advanced Sciences and Chairperson of the UAE Space Agency, is part of Time’s Next 100 list for 2021.

The New York-based publication recently unveiled its picks for the list which features international  influential figures, making their mark on the world across various industries such as business, entertainment, technology, science, sports, politics, health and more.

It is no surprise that Al Amiri made the list. She is the Science Lead of the Emirates Mars Mission, which proved to be successful after the Hope Probe entered Mars’ orbit on February 9, making the UAE the first Arab country and the fifth globally to achieve such an important milestone.

Al Amiri is part of the “innovators” category and joins 54 other women on the list who brought hope to their communities despite this year’s tough challenges.

Besides her work in sending the Arab world’s first sustainable spacecraft to Mars, Her Excellency is also part of future space and technology projects such as the lunar mission in 2024 and plans to build a human settlement on Mars by 2117.

Al Amiri holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the American University of Sharjah in Computer Engineering and previously helped build the country’s first satellites: DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2.

In 2015, she was honoured by the World Economic Forum as one of their 50 young scientists and was invited to speak at Davos 2019.

Other figures on Time’s Next 100 list include singer Dua Lipa, physicist Ranga Dias, Syrian journalist Hadi Al Khatib, football player Marcus Rashford and Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

Images: supplied.