Aaron Yazzie
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Aaron Yazzie | |
|---|---|
 Aaron Yazzie in 2019 | |
| Born | 1986 (age 39–40) |
| Education | Stanford University |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Mechanical engineering |
| Employer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Projects | Mars Science Laboratory InSight Mars 2020 |
| Website | https://www.aaronyazzie.com |
Aaron Yazzie (born 1986) is a Diné (Navajo) mechanical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His work involves planetary sample acquisition and handling. He has worked on the Mars Science Laboratory, InSight, and Mars 2020 missions.
Yazzie is Ashįįhí (Salt Clan) and born for Todích'íi'nii (Bitter Water Clan).[1] He was born in 1986[2] in Tuba City, Arizona, part of the Navajo Nation, and raised in Holbrook, Arizona, where his father was a civil engineer and his mother was a math teacher.[3]
Yazzie had originally planned on attending a public university in Arizona, but he decided to apply to Stanford University after meeting an admissions counselor at a pre-college summer program for Native Americans.[4] While at Stanford, he interned at two NASA research centers: the Goddard Space Flight Center and the Glenn Research Center.[4] He graduated from Stanford in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.[1][3]
Jet Propulsion Laboratory career
Yazzie joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 2008.[3] At JPL, he is a mechanical engineer working on planetary sample acquisition and handling.[2][5] He has worked on the Mars Science Laboratory, InSight, and Mars 2020 missions.[2]
Since joining JPL, Yazzie has been involved in recruiting other Native Americans to work at NASA.[3]
Yazzie has said that the surface of Mars reminds him of the landscape near his Tuba City birthplace.[3][6][7]