Farah Alibay

Farah Alibay is a Canadian systems engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has worked on the InSight, Mars Cube One, and Mars 2020 missions.

Early life and education The daughter of immigrants from Madagascar, Alibay was born in Montréal, Quebec. She grew up in Saint-Charles-Borromée, Quebec, and moved with her family to Manchester, England for high school. French is her native language.

She earned her PhD in aeronautics and astronautics engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2014.

In 2013, Alibay was awarded the AeroAstro Graduate Teaching Assistantship Award at MIT for her outstanding work as a teaching assistant in implementing Concurrent Design Facility software into the curriculum.

Career The Mars InSight landerAfter her master's degree, Alibay participated in the NASA Academy internship at Goddard Space Flight Center through which she was introduced to the many NASA centres and activities. It was there that she discovered her passion for robotic planetary exploration.

Following graduation in 2014 Alibay was hired on as a systems engineer to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory full-time. Her first project was the Mars Cube One CubeSats mission, a companion mission to InSight. To celebrate the landing on Mars on November 26, 2018, she had her hair dyed red to match the colour of Mars and of the InSight logo. In 2019, Alibay joined the Mars 2020 mobility team.

Alibay in 2019 also participated as a speaker during an interactive STEM discussion with students attending the 70th International Astronautical Congress. This STEM discussion was part of NASAs STEM engagement where the goal is to invest in STEM engagement are focused on building a future STEM workforce, through program elements designed to bolster capacity and to attract, engage and enable students to move toward STEM careers through NASA-unique opportunities.

She works on diversity and inclusion in STEM, both to increase them in her work environment and to prevent others from facing the challenges that she had as an LGBTQ+ immigrant woman of colour.

Personal life Alibay has spoken to the value of good mentors when she was an intern, and she mentors women interns as a result of those positive experiences.

Her favourite moon is Saturn's Enceladus. Alibay often enjoys outdoor activities such as rock climbing, backpacking, mountaineering, and hiking. She also enjoys volunteering and giving back to her community where she volunteers as part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program, as well as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocat) in Los Angeles. She also is regularly involved in a variety of outreach activities, including giving talks, mentoring students, and teaching at space camp.