Arab American Heritage Month

Dr. Hunein Maassab was a Syrian American epidemiology professor and scientist. He earned his Master of Public Health (1954) and PhD (1956) degrees from the University of Michigan and was the founder and first director of the school’s Hospital and Molecular Epidemiology Program. Dr. Maassab devoted his life to the search for an effective and safe live vaccine for influenza. In 2002, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved his vaccine for healthy people age 5 to 49. Today, it is marketed as FluMist® and is administered in the form of a nasal spray and is an alternative to traditional vaccine injections.

Born to Lebanese immigrants, Michael DeBakey earned his medical degree in 1932 and served in the Surgical Consultants Division of the Army Surgeon General's Office from 1942 to 1946. DeBakey and his colleagues developed special units dedicated to providing surgical care to soldiers wounded near the front lines. These were known as the Mobile Auxiliary Surgical Hospital (MASH) units. His surgical contributions include performing the first successful removal of a blockage of the carotid artery (1953), developing the concept behind coronary bypass surgery (1963) and pioneering the field of telemedicine with the first demonstration of open-heart surgery transmitted overseas via satellite (1965).

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha’s parents are Iraqi scientists and dissidents who fled during the Baath regime. A pediatrician, scientist, activist and author, she was pivotal in bringing attention to the Flint water crisis, in which residents were exposed to dangerous levels of lead. Time magazine named her one of their “100 Most Influential People in the World,” and she was recognized as one of USA Today’s “Women of the Century” for leading recovery efforts in the Flint water crisis. She is the Associate Dean for Public Health and C. S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Dr. Mounir Laroussi is a Tunisian American scientist who is highly respected for his work in plasma science. His best-known invention is the Plasma Pencil, a device that can generate long plumes of cold plasmas for use in various biomedical applications, including dentistry. He received his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Among his accolades are the IEEE Millennium Medal, Excellence in Research Award from the Batten College of Engineering and Technology, and Research Achievement Award from Old Dominion University.

Omar M. Yaghi was born in Jordan and is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California. Yaghi is the founding director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a pioneer in reticular chemistry, a field devoted to bonding molecular building blocks, and in molecular weaving. He synthesized the first material woven at the atomic and molecular levels and is leading the effort to apply these materials in clean energy technologies, including hydrogen and methane storage, carbon dioxide capture and storage, as well as harvesting water from desert air.

Dr. Rana el Kaliouby is an Egyptian American scientist and a pioneer in artificial emotional intelligence, as well as the cofounder and CEO of Affectiva, the company credited with defining the field of emotional AI. She grew up in Kuwait and in Cairo, Egypt, among a family of technologists and educators. While working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she and her team developed an “emotional hearing aid” that helps autistic patients read and respond to facial expressions when interacting with others. Her memoir, “Girl Decoded,” was published in 2020.

Rashida Harbi Tlaib is an American politician and lawyer serving as the U.S. representative for Michigan's 12th Congressional District. She is the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. On election night 2018, Democrat Rashida Tlaib won a historic race in Michigan's 13th Congressional District, making her the first female Muslim to be elected to the House of Representatives.

Steve Jobs was adopted at birth and raised in the San Francisco Bay area during the 1960s. His biological father was born and raised in Homs, Syria. An American entrepreneur, businessman, inventor and industrial designer, Jobs was the co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Apple Inc.; CEO and majority shareholder of Pixar; a member of The Walt Disney Company’s board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar; and founder, chairman and CEO of NeXT. Jobs and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak are widely recognized as pioneers of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.

Dr. Yasmine Belkaid is an Algerian-born immunologist, best known for studying host-microbe interactions in tissues and immune regulation to microbes. She is a senior investigator at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the NIAID Microbiome program. Belkaid's research focuses on investigating the role of microbiota in promoting immunity against infection. Her research also led to the discovery of certain skin microbes that play an important role in immune defense. She was appointed president of the Pasteur Institute for a six-year term, starting in January 2024.