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JPL's New Associate Director Led Successful Mars Exploration



 
 
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Old February 23rd 05, 08:13 PM
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Default JPL's New Associate Director Led Successful Mars Exploration

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-033

JPL's New Associate Director Led Successful Mars Exploration
Guy Webster (818) 354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

2005-033

February 23, 2005

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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