Nazeer Ahmed

About

Notable for his work on the Hubble Space Telescope and the Lunar Land Rover, Apollo, and Saturn projects, this aerospace scientist also had a political career in both his native India and in the United States, serving on the the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and running for a U.S. Congressional seat from California.

Before Fame

After earning his bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of Mysore and his master's degree in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology, he completed an M.B.A. at Rider University and a doctorate in applied mechanics at Cornell University.

Trivia

He published numerous scientific articles and secured a dozen United States patents for lasers designed for use in space. An Islamic scholar as well as a scientist and politician, he wrote and published both Islam in Global History and the Encyclopedia of Islamic History.

Family Life

The son of farmer and Sufi scholar Abdul Azeem, he spent his youth in Tumkur, Mysore, India.

Associated With

He and Vikram Sarabhai are both well-known Indian space scientists.