Anousheh Ansari is an Iranian-born American engineer who is the first female space tourist. She is the co-founder and chairwomen of Prodea Systems (technology and service Management Company). She is the first person of Iranian descent and the first Muslim woman to go into space. She is also the co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies. She is the fourth self-funded space tourist and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station.

Ansari has received multiple honors on her tremendous accomplishments. She has received George Mason University Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, the George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award. She has also received the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Southwest Region and the Horatio Alger Award. Her company Telecom Technology has been recognized as one of the Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest-growing companies.

Ansari has also been listed in Fortune Magazine’s 40 under 40 lists in 2001. She has honored by Working Woman as the winner of the 2000 National Entrepreneurial Excellence Award. In 2009 Ansari received the first NCWIT Symons Innovator award given by the National Centre for Women and Information Technology. The aim of the award is to honor successful women entrepreneurs in technology.