Firouz Michael Naderi ( fa, فیروز نادری: ''Fīrouz Nāderi''; born 25 March 1946) is an
Iranian American
Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship.
Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busin ...
scientist
A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...
who spent 36 years in various technical and executive positions at
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
(JPL) where he contributed to some of America's most iconic robotic space missions.
He retired from NASA in 2016 and currently is a management consultant, an advisor to early-stage high-tech startups, and a public speaker. He is based in
Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
Early life and education
![Pirooz Naderi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Pirooz_Naderi.jpg)
His elementary education was in
Shiraz
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, where he was born on 25 March 1946.
He attended high school in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
, Iran at an Italian boarding school (Don Bosco Boarding School) and left Iran in 1964 for the United States to pursue his college education. He received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineer at
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...
(ISU) in 1969
before moving to California. After working as an engineer in Santa Barbara for two years, he enrolled at
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
(USC) in Los Angeles where he received his M.S. in 1972 and his Ph.D. in 1976 both in
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
.
After completing his education, he went back to Iran for three years, working at the Iranian Remote Sensing Agency but returned to America in July 1979 a few months after Iran's revolution. He has not returned to Iran since. He is fluent in English in addition to his native
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...
.
Career at NASA
He started at NASA's JPL in September 1979 as a communications system engineer, and in a course of a three-decade career rose through the ranks to senior executive positions. His career at JPL has spanned
system engineering,
technology development
Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...
, program and
project management
Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. Th ...
for
satellite communications systems,
Earth remote sensing observatories, astrophysical observatories, and
planetary systems
A planetary system is a set of gravitationally bound non- stellar objects in or out of orbit around a star or star system. Generally speaking, systems with one or more planets constitute a planetary system, although such systems may also cons ...
.
![Outstanding_Leadership_Medal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Outstanding_Leadership_Medal.jpg)
His early work at JPL was on system design of large satellite-based systems for nationwide
cellular phone coverage. He went to NASA Headquarters for two years in the mid-1980s to serve as the program manager for the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), the frontrunner of today's multi-beam, space-switching commercial satellites. Upon his return to JPL, he became the project manager for the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) project aimed at space-based radar measurement of winds over the global oceans with application to
weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia a ...
. He was awarded NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal for his management of this project. Following NSCAT, in the mid-1990s he managed the Origins Program, NASA's ambitious, technology-rich plan, to search for Earth-like planets in other
planetary systems
A planetary system is a set of gravitationally bound non- stellar objects in or out of orbit around a star or star system. Generally speaking, systems with one or more planets constitute a planetary system, although such systems may also cons ...
.
Management of the Mars Program
He was named NASA's Program Manager for Mars exploration in April 2000 after the agency had suffered two consecutive, very public failures in the previous year. In the summer of 2000, he helped re-plan the Program as a chain of scientifically, technologically and operationally interrelated missions with a spacecraft launched to Mars every two years. He led the Program for the next five years, a span of time that included the successful landing of the
Mars Exploration Rovers,
''Spirit'' and
''Opportunity''. All told, from 2000 to 2012 there has been an unprecedented 6 consecutive successful American missions to Mars (4 landers and 2 orbiters) based on the roadmap devised in the summer of 2000. For management of the Mars Program, in 2005 he was awarded NASA's highest award, the
NASA Distinguished Service Medal
The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States. The medal may be presented to any member of the federal government, including both milita ...
.
JPL's Associate Director
After the Mars Program, he was appointed JPL's first associate director for Project Formulation and Strategy,
serving as the Laboratory's senior official providing oversight of JPL new business acquisition and senior strategic planning officer. He created JPL's Innovation Foundry, an internal startup ecosystem akin to accelerator/incubator outfits in Silicon Valley. For six years, he managed an annual $100M internal investment fund for identifying and maturing nascent technologies, and mission concepts that showed the potential to grow into funded space projects.
Director for Solar System Exploration
During his last five years at JPL, he was Director of Solar System Exploration with responsibility for the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn, Dawn mission to Asteroids Vesta and Ceres, Juno mission to Jupiter, and formulation of the first-ever Mars helicopter, and a multibillion-dollar mission to Europa (a moon of Jupiter) in search of life outside of Earth.
Asteroid Naderi
After 36 years, he retired from NASA in February 2016. At a farewell party in his honor, it was announced that the International Astronomical Union had renamed Asteroid 1989 EL1 as Asteroid "
5515 Naderi" for his contribution to space exploration.
The asteroid was discovered by the late American astronomer, Eleanor F. Helin, at the
Palomar Observatory
Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...
in San Diego County, California, on March 5, 1989, and is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) in diameter. It rotates about itself every 5.2 hours and orbits the Sun every 4.4 years. "Fortunately, it is not an Earth-crosser," says Naderi.
Life after NASA
In his post-NASA career, he serves as a management consultant, an advisor to early-stage high-tech startups (e.g.
OpalAi, and a public speaker. He also serves as a coach and mentor to the next generation of leaders within the Iranian-American community.
Teaching and public speaking
He is frequently invited as a keynote and motivational speaker at conferences and workshops. He has given talks to student associations at many universities, including: Stanford University,
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, University of Southern California,
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
,
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
,
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...
,
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
,
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
,
Texas A&M International University,
Texas A&M University at Qatar
Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) is a branch of Texas A&M University located in Education City, Al Rayyan, Qatar.
The university offers undergraduate degrees in chemical, electrical, mechanical, and petroleum engineering. A graduate progr ...
, the
University of Houston
The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...
,
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...
, and
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association.
KIT was created in 2009 w ...
—Germany
He has taught modules in executive education classes at Stanford University's on "Management of Large Complex Programs."
Philanthropy and community support
He is an active advocate for the Iranian-American diaspora formerly having served on the board of directors of
Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans
The Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans, acronym : PAAIA ( fa, پایا, translit=Pāyā), Inc., is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, nonreligious membership organization that aims to "serve the domestic interests of Iranian-American, Iranian Amer ...
(PAAIA). He has also served on the advisory boards of several philanthropic organizations, including currently on Arasteh-Amin Foundation, and in the past on Keep Children in School Foundation (KCIS, and International Society of Children with Cancer (ISCC), and is a former board member of
Iranica Encyclopedia.
When asked that after living 50 years in America, does he feel more American or Persian, he said,
Political affiliation
He is a registered Democrat. His view on the political system in Iran is that the people living in Iran should decide what is the best system of government for them. But, he favors a democratically elected, secular government, observing full civil liberties and human rights with separation of "church" and state. He himself has no religious affiliation. However, in an interview in 2011, he called himself a "spiritual" person, believing in "something" beyond himself but not within the framework of any religion.
Representing Iran at the 89th Academy Awards
He and
Anousheh Ansari
Anousheh Ansari ( fa, انوشه انصاری ; née Raissyan; born September 12, 1966) is an Iranian American engineer and co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems. Her previous business accomplishments include serving as co-founder and CEO o ...
represented Iranian filmmaker
Asghar Farhadi
Asghar Farhadi ( fa, اصغر فرهادی, ; born 7 May 1972)[Soureh Movie Database](_blank) at the
89th Academy Awards on for its winning in the
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
category. Because of Farhadi's absence due to president Trump's 2017 immigration ban over seven Muslim countries including
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
; Farhadi selected Naderi and Ansari as his representatives at the Oscars, given that both of them are successful Iranian-Americans who immigrated to the US. On February 26, 2017, they accepted the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...
for ''
The Salesman'' on Farhadi's behalf. In the press briefing after the award when asked why he and Anousheh were chosen by the filmmaker to accept the award, he replied that it likely was because both Anousheh and he have a space perspective of Earth, "As you pull away from the Earth and look back at it all you see is a beautiful blue planet without any lines, borders or -- walls. Home to all of us."
Recognitions and awards
*Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (
AIAA)
*NASA, Outstanding Leadership Medal
*1997 – Space Technology Hall of Fame Medal
*2005 –
Ellis Island Medal of Honor
The Ellis Island Medal of Honor is an American award founded by the Ellis Island Honors Society (EIHS) (formerly known as the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO)), which is presented annually to American citizens, both native-born a ...
*2005 – NASA,
Distinguished Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) is a high award of a nation.
Examples include:
*Distinguished Service Medal (Australia) (established 1991), awarded to personnel of the Australian Defence Force for distinguished leadership in action
* Distinguishe ...
. This is the highest award given at NASA, for his "distinguished contribution to space science and exploration."
*2007 – The Engineers Council of Northridge, California, Theodore von Kármán Mission Excellence Award
*2010 – American Astronautical Society (AAS) William Randolph Lovelace II Award
*2015 – "Great Immigrants: The Pride of America" by Carnegie Corporation of New York
*2016 – Asteroid 1989 EL1 renamed Asteroid "5515 Naderi"
*2022 - inducted into Iowa State University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Hall of Fame
References
External links
Firouz Naderi bioon the JPL website, from 2017
Firouz Naderi bioon U.S. Virtual Embassy Iran, from 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naderi, Firouz
Iranian emigrants to the United States
Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Iranian engineers
NASA people
USC Viterbi School of Engineering alumni
Living people
1946 births
People from Shiraz
21st-century American engineers
Iowa State University alumni
20th-century Iranian engineers