Mohawk Guy at State of the Union Address
“Guest List for the First Lady’s Box State of the Union Address”
“Bobak Ferdowsi (Pasadena, CA) Flight Director, Mars Curiosity Rover
Bobak Ferdowsi, aka NASA’s “Mohawk Guy,” is a member of the Mars Curiosity rover team at NASA and Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. After the successful landing of the Curiosity rover in August 2012, President Obama called to congratulate the team on their success, and singled out Bobak for his unique haircut that captured the imagination of millions of people around the world. The Curiosity rover is a car-sized robot equipped with a laser, chemistry set, and drill for assessing whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms. Bobak is an Iranian-American and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professional who, in addition to his inspiring day-to-day work on the Mars Curiosity mission, volunteers as a FIRST robotics mentor to get more boys and girls excited about STEM education.”
Keith’s note: Here’s my audio interview with Bobak Ferdowsi, aka NASA’s “Mohawk Guy”, about his upcoming attendance of the President’s State of the Union Speech as a guest of Mrs. Obama.
Listen to the interview or download the mp3:
– MP3 File
All the attention on this guy simply because he has a different hair style reflects badly on NASA.
May I point out that, if you talk to kids about science, technology, and engineering, and use Curiosity as a powerful example of accomplishment to make them think about what it would be like to be part of the space program, Mr. Ferdowski rocks. Why? Because he’s an enormously talented guy, with a high level position, who takes his job seriously, but wants everyone to know, in his own way, that it’s a lot of fun. That makes a big impact. More power to him and his haircuts.
Let me also point out that Mr. Ferdowski, sitting with the FLOTUS at the SOTU represents human space exploration proudly. He’s a human, and he’s VERY much exploring space. In fact, astronaut Mark Kelly will be there too. While I have enormous respect for Mr. Kelly, and he’s going to be rightfully proud to be there, it won’t be as a representative of human space exploration.
I posted the audio so that people could hear Bobak for themselves. He certainly struck me as sincere. If a haircut gets someone’s attention such that he gets them interested in space or a technical career, why not?
I agree wholeheartedly James, I think Mr. Ferdowski’s hairstyle reflects horribly on NASA, punks it down, and makes it sleezy.
Given your view, I’m sure you’d recommend that NASA immediately institute a rigorous dress code and rigid “style” guidelines to all employees. They could issue standard uniforms – maybe similar to those seen in the pictures of 2.2 million Chinese armed forces, all army green, and identical, or maybe blue for space. Haircuts could be limited to a tight range of styles, assured by hiring NASA certified barbers and hairstylists. Conformity barcodes could be laser etched onto everyone so dress and style tracking could be automated and facial recognition and verfication cameras installed in strategic NASA facility walkways.
Or maybe it would be more cost effective to just have “shaming sessions” with anyone that doesn’t seem to comply with management’s opinion – or would that be with your opinion?
Me? I’d rather hang any day with a super smart guy with stars on his head, than a GQ style-compliant moron. I wonder which of the two everyone else would prefer.
I did ask him if he was going to try the Gene Kranz buzz cut look at some point …
Well said! See you at the next Self-Criticism meeting.
Why? Would you rather show a more typical image of a NASA employee i.e. a middle aged white male with ill-fitting suits and an expanding waistline? The future is going to be different than the present- and the present is already different than the past. NASA needs to start paying attention …
Too bad a Mohawk haircut is more important to the mass media and this Obama Administration than a vibrant lunar and mars colonization program or and end to oil imports with space solar mirrors that could double the output of all existing earth based solar power plants
Sounds like someone is upset that their specific policy angle was not adopted by this – or previous – administrations.
Yes, it’s rather frustrating that I keep seeing this mis-spelling of his last name (in the comments as well as in general media). I can relate to him, though, as I am also an Iranian/Canadian working in the US and I have my name modified some of the time. Most people are good enough to ask how to pronounce it but some are very creative and without concern about how I might feel. Oh well. At least my co-workers at NASA JSC are very good about being sensitive to the various cultures here in the ISS program. People here are great at getting the names right!
Ouch. That was my bad. Apologies to Bobak Ferdowsi.
That’s what you get when you’re distracted by haircut prejudice. If the guy had a ring in his navel it wouldn’t bother me either. A big Curiosity tattoo on his chest would be gutsy to have done before landing, though.
I wonder what Chris Kraft would say about his mohawk….