Omran Sharaf ( ar, عمران شرف; born 1984) is an Emirati engineer who is the project manager of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

' first mission to Mars, the

Emirates Mars Mission , ''Al-Amal'') , manufacturer = , dry_mass = 550 kg , launch_mass = 1350 kg, including800 kg hydrazine fuel1,350 kg , payload_mass = , dimensions = 2.37 m × 2.90 m , power = 1800 watts from t ...

. He is also the director of the programs management department at the

Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC; ar, مركز محمد بن راشد للفضاء, markaz Muḥammad bin Rāshid lil-faḍāʾ), is a Dubai government organisation working on the UAE space programme, which includes various space sa ...

, a

United Arab Emirates Space Agency The United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) ( ar, وكالة الإمارات للفضاء translit: wikālat al-Imārāt l-lifaḍā') is the space agency of the United Arab Emirates government responsible for the development of the country' ...

Early life and education

Sharaf was born in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and earned a master's degree in 2013 from KAIST. His dissertation was title "A Satellite for Knowledge Economy: Knowledge Transfer in the UAE Space Program".

Career

In 2006, he was recruited as the first employee to join the newly established

Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC; ar, مركز محمد بن راشد للفضاء, markaz Muḥammad bin Rāshid lil-faḍāʾ), is a Dubai government organisation working on the UAE space programme, which includes various space s ...

( EIAST). He lived in South Korea for seven years, working on the Command and Data Handling Subsystem of

DubaiSat-1 DubaiSat-1 ( ar, دبي سات-1) is a remote sensing Earth observation satellite built by the '' Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST)'' under an agreement with Satrec Initiative, a satellite manufacturing company in ...

. On EIAST's second EO mission,

DubaiSat-2 DubaiSat-2 ( ar, دبي سات-2) is an electro-optical Earth observation satellite built by the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology under an agreement with Satrec Initiative, a satellite manufacturing company in South Korea. ...

, Omran worked on the Systems Engineering in addition to the Command & Data Handling Subsystem. He was assigned as Director of Space Images Processing & Analysis Department from the 2011-2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharaf, Omran Space program of the United Arab Emirates 1984 births Emirati electrical engineers Living people Emirati scientists Emirati expatriates in South Korea KAIST alumni University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni