Faezeh Azizi
With deep sadness, it’s announced the passing of Dr. Firouz Naderi on Fri 6/9. In his last hours, Firouz was surrounded by love and admiration, as he was throughout his life.
Thus, to highlight Firouz Michael Naderi (Persian: فیروز نادری: Fīrouz Nāderi; 25 March 1946 – 9 June 2023[1]) was an Iranian American scientist who spent 36 years in various technical and executive positions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he contributed to some of America’s robotic space missions.
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, program and project management for satellite communications systems, Earth remote sensing observatories, astrophysical observatories, and planetary systems.
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.
He was named NASA’s Program Manager for Mars exploration[8] 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.
In his post-NASA career, he served as a management consultant, an advisor to early-stage high-tech startups (e.g., OpalAi), and a public speaker. He also served as a coach and mentor to the next generation of leaders within the Iranian-American community.
