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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anousheh Ansari | 3/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anousheh_Ansari | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T12:32:42.086919+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Awards and honors == Ansari has received multiple honors, including the George Mason University Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, the George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Southwest Region, and the Horatio Alger Award. While under her leadership, Telecom Technologies, Inc. earned recognition as one of Inc. magazine's 500 fastest-growing companies and one of Deloitte & Touche's Fast 500 technology companies. She was listed in Fortune Magazine's 40 under 40 list in 2001 and honored by Working Woman as the winner of the 2000 National Entrepreneurial Excellence award. In 2009, she received the first NCWIT Symons Innovator Award given annually by the National Center for Women & Information Technology to honor successful women entrepreneurs in technology. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from her alma mater George Mason University on December 20, 2012. The Ansari family was honored with an Orbit Award by the National Space Society and Space Tourism Society for underwriting the Ansari X Prize. In 2010, she was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor recognition of her humanitarian efforts. In 2015, the National Space Society awarded Ansari the Space Pioneer Award for her "Service to the Space Community."
== Other activities and public appearances ==
Ansari participated as a speaker at the 2010 Honeywell Leadership Academy with Homer Hickam at United States Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2009, Ansari was featured in the documentary film Space Tourists by independent Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei about billionaires who paid to ride to the International Space Station aboard Russian spacecraft. The DVD of the film was released in 2011. She was the commencement speaker and received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Utah Valley University on April 25, 2013. On February 26, 2017, she and Firouz Naderi represented Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi at the 89th Academy Awards. They accepted the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for The Salesman on Farhadi's behalf. Farhadi did not attend the ceremony due to his opposition to President Trump's immigration ban applying to seven Muslim countries, including Iran. Farhadi selected Ansari and Naderi as his representatives because both are successful Iranian-Americans who immigrated to the US. Ansari has served on the boards of directors for Make-a-Wish Foundation of North Texas and Collin County Children's Advocacy Center. She has been active with several nonprofit organizations, including the nonprofit Iranian American Women Foundation organization. Other non-profit organizations include Ashoka in its support of social entrepreneurs.
== Personal life == While working at MCI, she met Hamid Ansari. They married in 1991. The Ansaris reside in Plano, Texas. She is also the aunt of the American actors Yara Shahidi and Sayeed Shahidi.
== See also == Iranian women List of famous Iranian women List of International Space Station visitors Women in space
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website Anousheh Ansari Space Blog Archived 2006-10-04 at the Wayback Machine Space Tourists, a documentary film from Christian Frei with Anousheh Ansari Anousheh Ansari in SpaceScience.ir (in Persian) Appearances on C-SPAN Interview with Anousheh Ansari Archived 2021-05-01 at the Wayback Machine A 'passion' for space travel BBC/Click Video Interview with Anousheh Ansari Spacefacts astronaut bio April 2018