Tahani Amer
Tahani Amer is an American Muslim that works at NASA who grew up in a suburb of Cairo, Egypt. Dr. Amer started working at NASA in the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and moved to wind tunnel tests.
In 2001, Dr. Amer patented an invention that measures an object’s ability to conduct heat through a thin material coating. Her invention can be used for testing how objects move through air, for example a car driving on the road or an airplane flying through the sky.
Childhood
From a young age, Tahani possessed a love and strength for science, mathematics, and chemistry. That developed from watching her father fix his car engine. He inspired her to persevere and be confident, encouraging her to do traditionally “boy” activities that were not the norm in her culture — like riding a bike, fixing a car, and managing finances for his business.
Education
Tahani had planned to attend medical school in Cairo, Egypt. However, she changed her major to engineering after getting married at 17 and moving to the U.S.A in 1983. Despite not knowing any English, she received an A in her first Calculus course. During a two-year associate degree in science, Tahani raised her children while attending classes.
Early Career
While completing her Bachelor's Degree, Tahani enrolled in a scholarship program with the Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC), which resulted in an internship with the Computational Fluid Dynamics team at NASA.
After completing school, she went door-to-door with her resume until she linked to NASA’s Aeronautical Research program, where she studied the pressure and thermal sensitivity of paint in one of NASA’s wind tunnels.
Dr. Amer’s 3 Life Principles
Dr. Amer lives by three simple principles:
Please God, and you will please all.
Education is the key to opportunity.
Serve others with compassion and kindness.
Amer’s Equation of Success
Dr. Amer has a formula called “Amer’s Equation of Success,” which looks like this:
(IP3 + R)/T
This stands for:
[Imagine your future x (Passion x Plan x Perseverance) + Relationships] / Time
Community Outreach
Dr. Amer devotes her time to educating the public about NASA, assisting with NASA's “Day of Caring” Engineering Week, the Speakers Bureau, Diversity Day, and after-school science clubs.
Dr. Amer has chaired the Applied Science Session for the VSGC (the organization that helped start her career) and the IPAO NASA Program Management Challenge.
Dr. Amer gives back to the community that helped build her up by:
Lecturing in many churches, universities, and local school systems.
Advocating for students/women/minorities to pursue a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Aiding battered women and providing business attire to women re-entering the workforce.
Contributing to mosque programs for teaching Islamic rules and Arabic to young children.