Bobak Ferdowsi (, ; born November 7, 1979) is a

flight engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is a member of an aircraft's flight crew who is responsible for monitoring and operating its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referr ...

at NASA's

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 ...

. He served on the ''

Cassini–Huygens ''Cassini–Huygens'' ( ), commonly called ''Cassini'', was a space research, space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, i ...

'' and

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 ...

''Curiosity'' missions. Ferdowsi gained brief media fame in August 2012 when, sporting a distinct

mohawk hairstyle The mohawk (also referred to as a mohican in British English) is a hairstyle in which, in the most common variety, both sides of the head are shaven, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair in the center. Mohawk hairstyles have existed for ...

, he was repeatedly visible on camera during the televised ''Curiosity'' landing. His appearance became an iconic image of the event with coverage in the news and

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

; even

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

commented on the popularity of "Mohawk Guy".

Life and career

Ferdowsi was born November 7, 1979, in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. He is of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

descent; his father immigrated to the United States from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. His parents met in college. He was inspired to work in the space sector by his high school teachers and his love of science fiction, including ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' and the works of

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A ...

. Soon after birth he moved to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

where he stayed until age 11, then moved to Tokyo in 1991, where he attended the

American School in Japan The American School in Japan (ASIJ; ) is an international private day school located in the city of Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. The school consists of an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school, all located on the Chōfu campus. There ...

, graduating in 1997. The same year, he enrolled at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

where he majored in

aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

, a childhood dream. While there he did research under Nobel Laureate

Hans Georg Dehmelt Hans Georg Dehmelt (; 9 September 1922 – 7 March 2017) was a German and American physicist, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1989, for co-developing the ion trap technique (Penning trap) with Wolfgang Paul, for which they shared one-h ...

in the Department of Physics. In 2001, he enrolled at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

and joined the Lean Aerospace Initiative where he stayed until 2003. Ferdowsi joined JPL in late 2003, and worked on the Mars Science Laboratory mission through its successful landing nearly nine years later on August 6, 2012. He was a science planner on the ''

'' mission, See als
YouTube version
. and is involved with the ''

Europa Clipper Europa Clipper (previously known as Europa Multiple Flyby Mission) is a space probe developed by NASA to study Europa (moon), Europa, a Galilean moon of Jupiter. It was launched on October 14, 2024. The spacecraft used a gravity assist from Mar ...

'' as a systems engineer. , Ferdowsi is Fault Protection lead on the

NISAR The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission is a joint project between NASA and ISRO to co-develop and launch a dual-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on an Earth observation satellite in 2025. It will be the first radar im ...

joint Earth observation mission at

Media appearances and NASA advocacy

Ferdowsi became a media sensation when, during the August 6, 2012 landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, he wore a

that was seen on

NASA TV NASA TV (originally NASA Select) was the television service of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It was broadcast by satellite television, satellite with a simulcast over the Internet. Local cable television provid ...

's live broadcast of the event. He was seated in a prominent camera position and his mohawk unexpectedly became an iconic image of the landing. Ferdowsi explained that he wore a new haircut for every mission and the mohawk was chosen by his team by popular vote. When President

called to congratulate the team, he noted the popularity of the "Mohawk Guy", saying "it does seem NASA has come a long way from the white shirts, dark-rimmed glasses, and pocket protectors. You guys are a little cooler than you used to be." Ferdowsi said in another interview that he did it to help lighten the seriousness of the workplace and "If my mohawk gets a few more people excited about science and this mission, that's awesome." Ferdowsi took part in the

Second inauguration of Barack Obama The second inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States was the 57th inauguration, marking the commencement of his second and final term, with Joe Biden as vice president. This is the most recent presidential inauguration wher ...

in January 2013, marching in the parade alongside other NASA scientists and replicas of Curiosity and the

Orion Orion may refer to: Common meanings * Orion (constellation), named after the mythical hunter * Orion (mythology), a hunter in Greek mythology Arts and media Fictional entities Characters and species * Orion (character), a DC Comics c ...

spacecraft, as part of the agency's official Presidential Inaugural Weekend. Ferdowsi also took part in Obama's State of the Union address on February 12, 2013, where he was seated in First Lady

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...

's box "to highlight President Barack Obama's call for more visas for skilled immigrants in the fields of math, science and engineering." Ferdowsi appeared on the sixth season of ''

BattleBots ''BattleBots'' is an American robot combat television series and company. The show is an adaptation of the American Robot Wars competitions hosted in the mid–late 1990s by Marc Thorpe, in which competitors design and operate remote-controlled ...

'' as a sideline reporter. Ferdowsi appeared in a cameo role in the 2015 television film '' Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!'' He is an advocate for the space sector and appears in several events that link arts and sciences. He is active on social media, using Twitter to make the public more aware of the lighter side of science. In 2024, Ferdowsi appeared as a fictional mission director in '' 3 Body Problem''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferdowsi, Bobak 1979 births American aerospace engineers American people of Iranian descent American School in Japan alumni Engineers from Philadelphia Internet memes introduced in 2012 Jet Propulsion Laboratory Living people Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni NASA people People from the San Francisco Bay Area University of Washington College of Engineering alumni

Life and career

Media appearances and NASA advocacy

See also

References

External links