Adah Almutairi
Adah Almutairi (), is a Saudi Arabian scientist, one of Forbes top ten most influential female Engineers in the world, is a scholar of Science & Engineering, Inventor, and Entrepreneur. Almutairi is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry; faculty in the departments of Bioengineering and NanoEngineering; and Director of the Center for Excellence in Nanomedicine and Engineering in the Institute of Engineering in Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Her work focuses on nanomedicine, nanotechnology, chemistry and polymer science. Almutairi is a 2016 Kavli Fellow and has received numerous honors and awards such as the NIH director's  new innovator award in 2009 for her work on "Chemically Amplified Response Strategies for Medical Sciences". Almutairi's ground breaking work was highlighted by U.S. NIH director Francis Collins to Congress as one of the 4 most important American technology breakthroughs of the year 2012. Almutairi holds 13 U.S. patents issued, some which are currently licensed in Industry. Almutairi is the Founder of eLux Medical Inc. . Early life and education. Almutairi was born on November 1, 1976 in Portland, Oregon, United States to Saudi parents. She moved to Los Angeles in 1997 to complete her higher education. She graduated from  Occidental College with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 2000. She obtained her Ph.D. in materials chemistry from University of California, Riverside, with a focus on electron delocalization and molecular structure in 2005. She completed her Postdoctoral Studies in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, from 2005 to 2008. At Berkeley Almutairi worked with Jean Fréchet where she developed several nanoprobes for in vivo molecular imaging. She joined the University of California, San Diego in 2008, and has been there ever since, as the director of excellence in Nanomedicine. Academic contributions. Her academic contributions throughout  her career to Pharmaceutical Sciences are listed below: Awards and honors. Almutairi has received several awards for her contributions in science and medicine including: