Meet the M'sian Who Founded a Future Billion Dollar Startup & Has Worked With NASA

Recently, X user @Richardker shared a story about another outstanding Malaysian scientist, Dr Amani Salim. She is the expert on graphene, which is similar to Vibranium, a fictional metal mined only in the kingdom of Wakanda and associated with the character Black Panther.

Born in Penang, she never intended to be in the field when she was young. Her first job was washing glass slides and cover slips for microscopes but as they say, “If you’re going to do something, do it right!”

She carried out her job so well that she was recognised by her professor and given more opportunities.⁠ She now boasts a ⁠PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue Uni, USA, and a ⁠BSc and MSc in Electrical Eng from the University of Minnesota, USA. In fact, her CV is 14 pages long and the font is tiny.

In 2019, her story at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) went viral on social media because she was the principal investigator (PI) there.

She had the honour of being the first non-American Muslim PI for a NASA project where she worked with top scientists and engineers to build a device that can measure extracellular ions from a single cell in microgravity.

This is how Richard Ker explains it simply:

4/ Imagine a tiny cell in space.They want to know what's going on inside it.For example counting its building blocks called ions.The tiny gadget can peek inside the cell and count these building blocks.This helps them understand how cells work to grow food in space. pic.twitter.com/oVbFytLiKc

— Richard Ker (@richardker) April 16, 2024

In 2019 together with a Wall Street veteran, she co-founded nanoSkunkWorkX, a deep-tech startup that builds applications using graphene and conductive polymers. Graphene is the thinnest compound known to man, the lightest material known, the strongest compound discovered, the best conductor of heat at room temperature, and the best conductor of electricity known.

The Malaysian startup managed to integrate graphene into copper and silicon. On top of that, they do it at scale with low cost and sustainably. Their technology can be used in biosensors and semiconductors applications. Basically, their work is out of this world!

Dr Amani was able to combine her knowledge in various fields to build next-generation technologies that would benefit mankind. Graphene is also an emerging market that is targeted to be a billion-dollar industry.

Her dream is to build impactful innovation in Malaysia and she is a truly inspiring individual! Hats off to her!