Najat El Mokhtar is a Moroccan nuclear scientist and researcher who is one of the biggest promoters of the peaceful use of nuclear energy, technology and applications to achieve development goals and make the atom at the service of peace and development.

From her native Rabat, she embarked on a distinguished scientific career in France, Canada and the United States of America. She began her career as a university professor and research director in Morocco for more than 20 years, then held important responsibilities within the IAEA for 13 years.

In 2019, her career took her to one of the highest positions in the field of atomic energy in the world, and she became the first Arab and African woman to hold the position of Deputy Director General of the UN International Agency.

Birth and upbringing

Najat El Mokhtar was born in 1957, in the popular Akkari neighborhood in the center of the capital, Rabat, to a middle-income family whose origins go back to the village of "Ba Mohamed" in the suburbs of Taounate in the north of the Kingdom of Morocco.

Her father died when she was young, so her mother worked in weaving traditional carpets and selling them to support the family, while entrusting her upbringing to her grandmother, who was characterized by rigor, and was the essential role in raising the child Najat on the love of learning and keenness on diligence and excellence in educational achievement.

She was the eldest of 4 brothers with whom she only played and accompanied them. Najat tells that her childhood was not easy, and her mother pushed her to learn carpet weaving to have a craft, in a social and cultural context that prevailed at the time, and prioritizes education for boys, and considers the marriage of girls the most important.

The boys grew up in a popular neighborhood attributed to Ali Akkari, who is said to have first founded the flag in Rabat and built its buildings, during the 18th and 19th centuries.

She imbibed the social and cultural characteristics of the countryside in the heights of the Taounate Mountains, which she had been visiting every summer since her early childhood. Then in the heart of the Anti-Atlas mountain range in the southern Moroccan town of Tafraoute, home to her husband's family.

The influence of the field in which Najat Al-Mukhtar grew up as a child and lived as the wife of a man who had a professional specialization agreement and similar scientific temperament played a prominent role in crystallizing her serious and self-made personality at work. Her husband has been supportive of her throughout her academic and professional career.

Study and scientific training

Najat received her first lessons in public schools, where she had nothing to do with her young classmates except a love of learning, as she was a mid-level student.

The Moroccan researcher tells that she was not in primary and preparatory education of outstanding students, which bothered her mother, as she hired a teacher to teach her at home.

But everything changed in high school when she discovered her passion for science and languages, excelled in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and the atmosphere of competition in the classroom was a catalyst for her to develop her level to be among the first.

When she received her baccalaureate, her mother asked to stop studying to look for work to help her, and after her strong urging, her mother finally agreed to continue her studies at university.

She pursued her higher education at the Faculty of Science at Mohammed V University in Rabat, was an energetic and intelligent student, excelling in the specialty "Dietetics".

She then moved to France on a scholarship and continued her studies at the University of Dijon, where she earned a doctorate in nutritional sciences, then moved to Canada at the University of Laval with a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology. She stated that she used to give her mother a university scholarship to use for family expenses.

Driven by a passion for science, Najat embarked on a new study experience in the United States, completing her postdoctoral training under Johns Hopkins University's Full Bright program.

During the first two years of the birth of her twins, Najat al-Mukhtar stopped her scientific activities, but then taught herself English at home, after she was fluent in French and Arabic only.

Career

She worked in several professions in parallel with her studies in France, Canada and America, and when she returned to her country, she was appointed a professor at Ibn Tofail University in Kenitra. During this period, she worked as Director of the Nutrition Research Laboratory, and supervised the training and mentoring of students in the field of nutrition and public health.

In 2001, she first became an expert in nutrition at the IAEA scientist and worked as a technical officer for nearly 6 years. She said that her husband had accidentally seen the announcement of this vacancy, and with his encouragement she was able to succeed in obtaining it, at which time she had little knowledge of the institution.

But this international job was a real opportunity that enabled her to discover the field of nuclear science and technology, and a professional challenge to learn a lot outside her original field of specialization, she recalls.

Najat El Mokhtar returned to Morocco in 2007 and served as Director of the Department of Science and Technology at the Hassan II Academy of Sciences and Technology, during which she participated with the Ministry of National Education, Scientific Research and Executive Training (Ministry of Education) in the preparation of the National Strategy for Scientific Research with many local and international actors. It also contributed with the Ministry of Health to the National Nutrition Strategy.

Then, in 2011, she returned to the UN agency and held the position of Head of the Environmental Studies Department related to nutrition and health, where she was able to support and accompany a large number of countries in the field of health and nutrition.

She served as Head of the Asia Pacific Section in the IAEA Technical Cooperation Department in 2014, an experience that enabled the provision of technical support to 37 countries there in different sectors.

On January 2019, <>, she was appointed Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Applications, a recognition of her scientific and professional competence, making her the first woman to hold this high position since the establishment of the IAEA.

Challenges & Projects

The Moroccan scientist and researcher runs 12 laboratories employing about 400 experts in the use of atomic energy for peaceful goals of sustainable development and the development and encouragement of scientific research in developing countries in particular.

Changing the prevailing negative perception of nuclear energy and its dangers is one of the most prominent challenges at the top of its work, as it seeks to change the stereotype of the word "nuclear", which is associated with fear due to catastrophic historical events, and to establish a conviction that highlights the safety of nuclear techniques outside military uses.

Through the UN Agency, Najat Al-Mukhtar provides initiatives in the peaceful and safe applications of nuclear energy in the field of good environment, food, agriculture, health, clean and healthy water, enhancing safety and security, and promoting science and technology.

Over her years as Head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences, Najat Al-Mukhtar has developed a number of research programs and projects that rely on nuclear energy for agricultural production and generate disease-resistant plant mutations and genes based on nuclear technologies.

She stressed that the agency presented an initiative called "Hope Rays" to combat cancer, to face the increase in the number of people infected with this disease, with the importance of providing treatment for all. As well as the launch of a project called "Zodiac", which aims to act quickly and decisively to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and prevent them from turning into epidemics. In addition to an environmental project that seeks to combat the harmful effects of plastic in the oceans using nuclear technology.

Honours

Najat Al-Mukhtar has won the following awards:

  • Honoring the delegation of the League of Arab States in Vienna, Austria, on the occasion of the "Arab Expatriate Day in Austria", in recognition of its "busy" career path within the UN system, in 2019.
  • Shield of Shine, within the second edition of the program "The Night of Loyalty to Brilliant Women from My Country", with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and the Mohammed V Theater in Rabat, in 2021.
  • In 50, the French-language Moroccan economic weekly Challenge, ranked her among 2021 Moroccan female competencies silently on a distinguished career path in various fields and fields.