Inaugural Time 100 Impact Awards held at Dubai's Museum of the Future

The landmark was lit with a touch of 'Time' red as regional leaders and cultural figures gathered alongside members of the global Time 100 community

The inaugural Time 100 Gala and Impact Awards was held on Monday at Dubai’s Museum of the Future.

The ceremony was the first major event to take place at the museum since its opening on February 22.

The landmark was lit with a touch of Time’s red as regional leaders and cultural figures gathered alongside members of the global Time 100 community.

Notable personalities who attended the red carpet event included civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, who was named in Time’s first Women of the Year list this month; Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Nigerian singer, actress and philanthropist; French-Tunisian contemporary artist eL Seed; US model Tyra Banks; and Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, the first woman to hold a ministerial position in the UAE.

Sheikha Lubna was formerly the minister of state for tolerance, minister of state for international co-operation and development, and minister of economy and planning.

The Impact Awards are the latest expansion of the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people and recognises those who have made a significant impact on their industries and the world at large.

The winners

Minister of State for Advanced Technology Sarah Al Amiri was among the award recipients. Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency and the UAE Council of Scientists, Ms Al Amiri was honoured for her role in helping to take the UAE to Mars.

She is the deputy project manager on the Emirates Mars Mission. Her team designed the Hope spacecraft, which has now been studying the atmosphere on Mars for close to a year.

So far, the spacecraft has detected and mapped the "discrete aura" on the planet’s dark side and recorded dramatic variations in atomic oxygen and carbon monoxide in Mars’s dayside atmosphere

British-Ghanian architect Sir David Adjaye, whose designs include the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the US, as well as the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, was also honoured for his work.

Mr Adjaye was honoured, according to Time, for “reorienting the world’s attention and shining a light on cultures from every corner of the world".

“Rather than point to themselves, his buildings invite a rethinking of history and a more nuanced reflection on the lives, heritage and habits of those around the building.

“The decorative cladding of the museum in Washington, for instance, was inspired by the metalwork of pre-Civil War African-American craftsmen.”

Tony Elumelu was also a winner of the Impact Awards. The Nigerian economist was honoured for his efforts, through his eponymous foundation, in empowering African entrepreneurs to create jobs on the continent.

“We want to see the businesses of our young ones rise and overtake what we’ve already built,” he said in November at 2021 IOD Annual Conference

Bollywood star Deepika Padukone was also among the winners. The actress was recognised for her advocacy work on mental health.

Padukone runs the free counselling service LiveLoveLaugh, which trains primary care physicians to better recognise and treat mental health conditions.

Makeup artist and founder of Huda Beauty, Huda Kattan, was awarded the prize for “disrupting what it means to be beautiful”.

The Iraqi-American entrepreneur launched her skincare line Wishful in 2020 with a campaign that featured Kattan and the company staff without filters or makeup.

“I started doing things in the beauty industry because I felt ugly — it was me trying to get value from people outside in order to feel beautiful,” Kattan told Time.

“But I’ve done the work now, and [I realised that] all of us have a deficit that we’re trying to fill. And I just don’t think that that’s actually possible, especially with the pressures of social media.”

Will.i.am was also a winner of the inaugural Impact Awards. The Black Eyed Peas founder was praised as much for his music as his philanthropy, and his work advocating forward-thinking tech and artificial intelligence strategies.

Will.i.am serves on the World Economic Forum’s Fourth Industrial Revolution Advisory Committee and Global Artificial Intelligence Action Alliance.

His non-profit i.am Angel Foundation helps thousands of disadvantaged children in his home region of Southern California through in-class and after-school education programs focused on the sciences, tech, maths and arts. The foundation also helps to administer college scholarships.

Pop star Ellie Goulding was also named a winner for being “a champion and protector of the environment”.

The English Love Me Like You Do singer has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Environment Programme since 2017. She spoke against the inaction of world leaders at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in November.

“I’m not afraid to go up and give people a hard time,” she told Time. “People need to hear that they’re not doing enough, that they’re not committing, that they’re not taking enough action.”