Mariam Alhanai completed her MSc in Mathematics from Marquette University, US, in 1984. She completed all course work towards a PhD in Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1987, but moved to France before its completion. Alhanai then moved to the UAE, where she raised her children before joining the Petroleum Institute in 2007, which became a part of the Khalifa University of Science and Technology in 2017. In UAE since 1990.