Aaron Yazzie (born 1986) is a Diné (

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

) mechanical engineer at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

. His work involves planetary sample acquisition and handling. He has worked on the

Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed ''Curiosity (rover), Curiosity'', a Mars rover, in Gale (crater), Gale Crater on Augus ...

InSight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...

, and

Mars 2020 Mars 2020 is a NASA mission that includes the rover ''Perseverance (rover), Perseverance'', the now-retired small robotic helicopter ''Ingenuity (helicopter), Ingenuity'', and associated delivery systems, as part of the Mars Exploration Progra ...

missions.

Early life and education

Yazzie is (Salt Clan) and born for (Bitter Water Clan). He was born in 1986 in

Tuba City, Arizona Tuba City () is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated town and census-designated place in Coconino County, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, United States. It is the second-largest community in Coconino County. The population of the census-design ...

, part of the

Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation (), also known as Navajoland, is an Indian reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in ...

, and raised in

Holbrook, Arizona Holbrook () is a city in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city was 5,053. The city is the county seat of Navajo County. Holbrook was founded in 1881 or 1882, when the railroad was bu ...

, where his father was a civil engineer and his mother was a math teacher. Yazzie had originally planned on attending a public university in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, but he decided to apply to

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

after meeting an admissions counselor at a pre-college summer program for Native Americans. While at Stanford, he interned at two NASA research centers: the

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

and the

Glenn Research Center NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center within the cities of Brook Park, Ohio, Brook Park and Cleveland between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Rocky River Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks, with a s ...

. He graduated from Stanford in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory career

Yazzie joined the

(JPL) in 2008. At JPL, he is a mechanical engineer working on planetary sample acquisition and handling. He has worked on the

, and

missions. Since joining JPL, Yazzie has been involved in recruiting other Native Americans to work at NASA. Yazzie has said that the surface of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

reminds him of the landscape near his Tuba City birthplace.

Personal life

Yazzie's parents were both first generation college students and he credits them with encouraging him to get a college education. He is actively involved in outreach to Native students and attributes success in his career to the work ethic instilled in him by his Navajo upbringing. Yazzie has had a long involvement with the

American Indian Science and Engineering Society The American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit professional association with the goal of substantially increasing American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, First Nation and other ...

(AISES). He was an AISES college scholarship recipient, as well as the president of the Stanford chapter. Since graduating, he has become an AISES Sequoyah Fellow (lifetime member). Yazzie was featured in the book ''Notable Native People'' by Adrienne Keene. He currently lives in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

References

External links

Official website

Aaron Yazzie
on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Aaron Yazzie poster
fro
Natives in STEM

Native Americans of NASA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yazzie, Aaron 1986 births Living people 21st-century American engineers American aerospace engineers American mechanical engineers Engineers from Arizona Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA people Navajo scientists 21st-century Native American scientists People from Holbrook, Arizona People from Tuba City, Arizona Stanford University School of Engineering alumni American planetary scientists Navajo born for the Bitter Water Clan