ABU DHABI // Amani Al Hosani is just months away from entering the history books.
When the 26-year-old mother of two completes her master's degree at Khalifa University in August, she will be the nation's first female nuclear scientist.
"You do not have to be a superwoman to be a mother and nuclear scientist," she said. "It is a job and all you need is to love science and be passionate about it."
Mrs Al Hosani matriculated from Hunain Girls' School in Abu Dhabi in 2003, and studied chemical engineering at UAE University.
"I graduated in 2009 and started work on onshore oilfields with Adco [Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations]," she said.
"I used to ask my science teachers to teach us about nuclear science at school, but they always said it was not in the curriculum."
Once she graduates, she hopes to work in the safety department of the Braka nuclear sites.
"I want to be a nuclear engineer in the simulation field where I can simulate the safety scenarios to see how I can enhance the safety of our power plants," she said.
Mrs Al Hosani is one of several Emiratis who benefited from the "Energy Pioneers" programme run by the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec). The programme awards scholarships and advancement courses to those wishing to work in the nuclear energy field.
Azza Al Sharhan, the human resources director at Enec, said: "Amani is one of the first generation of Emirati nuclear scientists and there are lots more to follow."
The programme is designed to encourage the most talented science students to pursue a career in the nuclear energy sector.
"The UAE's need for energy is growing by 9 per cent each year, and the Government has identified nuclear energy as a safe, clean, efficient and reliable way to power the nation's growth. By 2020, nuclear energy could provide up to a quarter of the nation's energy needs," said Ms Al Sharhan.
More than 170 Emiratis are studying as a result of Enec's scholarship programmes. But the corporation expects it will require more than 2,000 employees by 2020, with a target of 60 per cent Emiratisation.
"Emirati students want to play a role in the development of their nation. This desire to make a difference is what drove people to join the oil and gas industries in the 1960s as pioneers of a new sector. Today's generation of energy pioneers are turning to nuclear," Ms Al Sharhan said.
Her patriotic reasoning is not just rhetoric: a recent study by Enec polled 76 current and 151 potential students about their attitudes towards the nuclear energy. Eighty-three per cent of current students said they chose nuclear energy because they want to be part of the energy industry of the future.
"The research shows that Emirati students now favour science in higher education because they believe it gives them the skills to excel in work," Ms Al Sharhan said.
Of prospective engineering students polled, 85 per cent said they were pursuing that line of study because it offered good career opportunities.
The Energy Pioneers programme sponsors Emiratis interested in pursuing a bachelor's degree in chemical, nuclear, mechanical and electrical engineering. It also sponsors those seeking a master's degree in nuclear engineering through a fellowship at the Khalifa University's School of Science, Technology and Research.
Although Mrs Al Hosani will soon become one of the first to complete the course, it might easily have been a very different story.
She says her first application to enter the programme was turned down. "I applied a second time and when I was accepted I felt like my dream was becoming a reality," she said.
amustafa@thenational.ae
Oppenheimer
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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Lewis Hamilton in 2018
Australia 2nd; Bahrain 3rd; China 4th; Azerbaijan 1st; Spain 1st; Monaco 3rd; Canada 5th; France 1st; Austria DNF; Britain 2nd; Germany 1st; Hungary 1st; Belgium 2nd; Italy 1st; Singapore 1st; Russia 1st; Japan 1st; United States 3rd; Mexico 4th
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Brief scores:
Day 2
England: 277 & 19-0
West Indies: 154
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
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