 From Earth to distant galaxies
Firouz Naderi will become the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory's Associate Director for Programs
February 24, 2005
iranian.com
SOURCE: NASA news release
Dr. Firouz M. Naderi, manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Program
since April 2000, will broaden his oversight of endeavors to study
other parts of the universe, from Earth to distant galaxies, in
a new leadership position at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif.
JPL Director Dr. Charles Elachi has announced that Naderi will
become JPL's laboratory's Associate Director for Programs, Project
Formulation and Strategy, effective March 7.
Elachi said, "Firouz was called on to lead the Mars Program
at JPL five years ago when the program had experienced some setbacks.
He helped restructure the program and has led it to some spectacular
successes. Now we are putting to a wider purpose the strength that
Firouz has shown in strategic planning of the Mars program. In
his new role, he will help position JPL to work with the rest of
NASA in accomplishing the nation's full vision for space exploration."
In the new position, besides overseeing JPL's broad existing
programs, Naderi will be in charge of long-term strategic planning
for JPL and will coordinate advance studies, acquisition of new
missions, and development of projects early in their life cycle.
The current deputy manager for Mars exploration, Dr. Fuk K. Li,
will become manager of that program. Peter C. Theisinger, project
manager for the Mars Science Laboratory mission in development,
will succeed Li as deputy manager of the Mars Exploration Program.
Richard A. Cook, now Theisinger's deputy, will become project manager
of the Mars Science Laboratory mission.
Two weeks ago, NASA honored Naderi with its highest award, the
Distinguished Service Medal, citing his "distinguished contribution
to space science and exploration."
 Naderi joined JPL in 1979 and has held a number of program and
project management positions. For four years prior to managing
the recent successes of NASA's Mars program, he managed the NASA's
Origins Program, an ambitious plan to search for other Earths around
other suns. Earlier positions included program manager for space
science flight experiments and project manager for the NASA Scatterometer,
which monitored winds from Earth orbit. Naderi, who was born in
Shiraz, Iran, and moved to the United States 40 years ago, holds
three degrees in electrical engineering: a bachelor's from Iowa
State University in Ames, and a master's and doctorate from the
University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He lives in Pacific
Palisades, Calif.
Li has been Deputy Director of the Mars Exploration Directorate
since 2004. JPL coordinates the Mars Exploration Program for all
of NASA, which currently has two spacecraft studying Mars from
orbit, two rovers active on the surface and four spacecraft in
development.
From 2001 to 2004, Li was the Deputy Director of the Solar System
Exploration Directorate, and from 1997 to 2001, he managed NASA's
New Millennium Program, which develops and tests new technologies
in space flight for use in later science missions. Previously,
he managed the Earth Science Program, was project engineer for
the NASA Scatterometer and was involved in various radar remote-sensing
activities. He earned his bachelor's and doctorate degrees in physics
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, before
joining JPL in 1979. He lives in Arcadia, Calif.
Theisinger has managed the Mars Science Laboratory Project since
February 2004. The project is developing a rover with a science
payload more than 10 times as massive as those on the current Mars
Exploration Rovers. The project's advanced landing techniques will
make many of Mars' most intriguing regions viable destinations
for the first time.
Theisinger managed the Mars Exploration Rover Project from its
inception in mid-2000 until after the successful landings and initial
surface operations of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Prior
JPL positions included deputy manager for the Mars Sample Return
Project, mission support and development manager for the Mars Surveyor
Operations Project and project engineer for the Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft development project. He first joined JPL in 1967, the
year he received a bachelor's degree in physics from the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He lives in La Crescenta,
Calif.
 Cook became deputy project manager for Mars Science Laboratory
in June 2004 after four months as project manager for the Mars
Exploration Rovers. He had earlier helped lead the development
and operation of Spirit and Opportunity as flight systems manager
and deputy project manager. Previously, Cook was flight operations
manager for the Mars Pathfinder Project, which put a lander and
small rover on Mars in 1997. He joined JPL in 1989 and worked on
the Magellan mission to Venus prior to Pathfinder. He earned a
bachelor's degree in engineering physics from the University of
Colorado, Boulder, and a master's in aerospace engineering from
the University of Texas, Austin. He lives in Santa Clarita, Calif.
JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena.
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From Earth to distant galaxies
