Farah Alibay

In this inspiring talk, Farah Alibay shares her journey, from her childhood as the daughter of immigrants in Joliette to becoming a NASA aerospace engineer at the heart of major space exploration missions. She speaks candidly about the challenges she has faced in a male-dominated field, the lessons learned from setbacks, and the importance of diversity and inclusion. Along the way, she offers advice for those pursuing careers in STEM or seeking to become stronger allies for underrepresented groups in their industries.

Born in Montréal, Farah Alibay has contributed to several of NASA’s landmark space missions, including Mars 2020 with the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter. A graduate in aerospace engineering from Cambridge and MIT, she has worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on projects such as the InSight lander, the MarCO CubeSats, and the infrared telescope SPHEREx. She now serves as lead instrument engineer for the VERITAS mission, which will explore Venus.