Firouz Naderi

An Iranian-American scientist (born in Iran) and the Associate Director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) responsible for Project Formulation and Strategy.

He received his Ph.D.from the University of Southern California in electrical engineering (writing his dissertation in the area of digital image processing) and joined JPL in 1979.

His career at JPL has spanned system engineering, technology development and, program and project management for satellite communications systems, Earth remote sensing observatories, astrophysical observatories and planetary systems

He was named head of the Mars Exploration Program at JPL in 2000 after the Program had suffered two consecutive failures. In summer of 2000 he helped replan the Program as a chain of scientifically, technologically and operationally interrelated missions with a spacecraft launch 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.

Before Mars, he managed the Origins program, NASA’s ambitious technology-rich plan, to search for Earth-like planets in other planetary systems.

He joined JPL in September of 1979. 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-80s to serve as the program manager for the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), the front-runner 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 measurement of winds over the global oceans with application to weather forecasting. He was a co-founder of a startup company in the mid-‘80s and consultant to other startup companies in the same period. Dr. Naderi is an Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautic and Astronautic (AIAA).