Firouz Michael Naderi is an
Iranian scientist who spent more
than 30 years in various
technical and management
positions at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (PL),
where he contributed to some of
the most famous robotic space
missions in the United States. He
retired from NASA in 2016 and is
currently a business consultant,
advisor to young high-tech
startups, and public speaker.

His primary education was in
Shiraz, Iran, where he was born.

He attended high school at an
Italian boarding school (Don
Bosco Boarding School) in
Tehran before leaving Iran in
1964 for the United States to
continue his university
education. He earned a
bachelor’s degree from Iowa
State University before moving
to California in 1969. After
working as an engineer in Santa
Barbara for two years, he
attended the University of
Southern California (USC) in Los
Angeles, where he earned a
Master of Science degree.

Received a doctorate in 1972. In
1976, both obtained a major in
electrical engineering, After
completing his studies, he
returned to Iran for three years,
worked in the Iranian Remote
Sensing Agency, and returned to
the United States after the
Iranian Revolution in July 1979.
He has not returned to Iran since

He started as a Communications
Systems Engineer at NASA JPL in
September 1979 and rose
through the ranks during his 30-
year career. His career at IPL
has involved systems
engineering, technology
development, program and
program management for
satellite communication
systems, Earth remote sensing
observatories, astrophysical
observatories, and planetary systems.

His early work at JPL involved
the system design of large
satellite systems for nationwide
cellular coverage. In the mid-
1980s. he spent two years at
NASA headquarters as program
manager for the Advanced
Communications Technology
Satellite (ACTS), the pinnacle of
today’s multibeam commercial
space-switching satellites. After
returning to JPL, he became the
program manager for the NASA
Scatterometer (NSCAT) project,
which aims to take space-based
radar measurements of wind
over the world’s oceans and
apply them to weather forecasting. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Leadership Medal for his management of
the program. After NSCAT, he led
the Origins program in the mid-
1990s, NASA’s ambitious and
technology-rich program to find
Earth-like planets in other planetary systems.

In April 2000, he was named
NASA’s Mars Exploration
Program Manager[1] after the
agency suffered two consecutive
high-profile failures the
previous year. In the summer of
2000, he helped reframe the
program into a series of science,
technology and operations
related missions, sending
spacecraft to Mars every two
years. He led the program for
the next five years, which
included the successful landings
of the Mars Exploration Rovers
Spirit and Opportunity. Between
2000 and 2012, the United States
carried out a total of six
successful missions to Mars
(four landers and two orbiters),
according to a roadmap drawn
up in the summer of 2000. For
leading the Mars program, he
received NASA’s highest honor,
the NASA Distinguished Service
Medal.