Dr. Naderi has spent the last decade managing NASA programs in pursuit of a most fundamental question – are we alone in the universe? The contribution our civilization makes to answering this question, he says, will be the legacy for which we will be remembered even centuries from now after transient issues of today are long forgotten.

Currently he is the head of the Mars Exploration Program at JPL. The program has the goal of determining if Mars is, or if it ever was, a habitat for life. In the summer of 2000, he helped design this program, which will see one or more spacecraft launched to Mars every 26 months. During his tenure, three successful missions have orbited or landed on Mars including the two recent Mars rovers – Spirit and Opportunity.

Dr. Naderi who received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California (USC), has been with JPL for 25 years a career which spans program and project management for satellite communications systems, Earth remote sensing observatories, astrophysical observatories and planetary systems. He is the recipient of a number of individual and group awards including Technology Hall of Fame medal, the NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal, and this year’s Liberal Prize winner awarded by an Italian foundation to an international personality who has “contributed profound changes in ideas in modern times”.

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