Top 100 Arabs 2025

98. Nora Al Matrooshi

Astronaut

Origin: UAE

Residence: UAE

Sector: Space

2024 Rank: 97

AlMatrooshi, the first female Emirati and Arab woman astronaut, was selected as part of the UAE Astronaut Programme’s second cohort in 2021.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the United Arab Emirates University and has completed a semester at Vaasa University of Applied Sciences in Finland.

She has also achieved another milestone by becoming the first Arab woman to complete NASA’s rigorous training programme.

Professionally, she has worked as a piping engineer at the National Petroleum Construction Company(NPCC) and later served as a technical specialist at ADNOC.

Beyond her space endeavours, she represented her country at the UN International youth conferences in 2018 and 2019. Looking ahead, AlMatrooshi aspires to participate in lunar missions, stating that her ideal space mission would be to “set foot on the moon”.

Mo Amer

Nadine Labaki