Habib, Shahid - Biography

Dr. Habib is responsible for the strategic planning activities include short, mid and long range plans addressing science needs, technology readiness, risks, manpower, budget and Inter-Agency partnering and international collaborations. He is part of the Earth Sciences Directorate management team dealing with such issues and advising and representing the Directorate members on critical matters. In this capacity he requires an extensive understanding and coordination with a wider science and engineering community in order to prioritize present and future science needs deriving major remote sensing space flight missions. These missions serve a critical role in studying earth's integrated climate system by providing global measurements from various vantage points from space to clarify uncertainties such as carbon cycle budget, global hydrology cycle, land-imaging and biomass changes, solid earth hazards and ocean and atmospheric variability.

He is responsible for managing the Independent Research and Development program to focus the investments in the enabling technologies (such as lasers, UV, microwave and infrared radiometry, formation flying and on-board processing, and sensor webs) to meet the science goals. He also oversees the critical workforce issues and budget for the future missions under definition and development.

Dr Habib is the Earth Science Enterprise program executive on NASA's collaboration with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. In this capacity, he has provided the leadership, program direction and strategy in implementing US/Russia joint mission (StratosphericAerosol Gas Experiment), launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in December 2001.

In his previous role, he served as a Program Manager in the Earth Science Enterprise Program Office. He held program responsibilities for major missions such as Aqua (multi instrument large platform US, Japan and Brazil combined mission to study atmospheric variability, cloud structure, ocean color and moisture), Aura (multi instrument large platform US, Netherlands and UK combined mission to study the atmospheric chemistry), Stratospheric Aerosol Gas Experiment (upper atmospheric aerosol, ozone and nitric acid), ICESat (polar ice caps and glaciology), and Jason (US and French mission to map the ocean level), and smaller missions including SUNSAT (US and South African mission to study the solid earth phenomena and magnetic field variations), SAC-C (US and Argentine mission for biomass and solid earth studies), and TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer-US and Russian mission to measure the tropospheric ozone). In addition to the above international collaborations, he was the main interface with the Russian and Ukrainian Space Agencies in developing the joint implementing agreements between US, Russia and Ukraine. He was also served as a Program Manager of the first technology demonstration New Millinneum/EO-1 mission (NASA hyper spectral imaging mission). He has worked extensively in the international arena and has a strong background in establishing international agreements.

Prior to the Earth Science Enterprise, he was with the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA Headquarters. During his tenure at this office, he managed Systems Engineering and Applied Technology programs in terms of their requirements, planning, quality, and implementation. He maintained cooperation and consulted with other Government Agencies involved in the aerospace business and successfully established and managed the Agency-wide systems engineering improvement program. He also chaired NASA's battery steering committee that involved Government Agencies other than NASA. Dr. Habib led the Space Station Reliability team during the redesign process. He was Agency's official representative on various US Government led initiatives in the area of Large Scale Data Exchange Systems and Advanced Manufacturing Techniques. Dr. Habib also was a member of the Agency-wide team in developing NASA's first Program Management Handbook NMI 7120.5.

While on the on the Space Station Freedom program as a Systems Verification Manager, he was involved in developing the systems integration and test processes for the space station hardware and software. The main focus was on the international partners' interfaces, robotic arm, and astronaut habitation module.

While in private sector, he was with Martin Marietta Corporation as the Implementation manager supporting the Federal Aviation Administration's $3 Billion Advanced Automation System implementation. The work included transition and implementation options studies and planning from existing terminal radars, controller workstations, long range radars, voice switching and communication systems, en-route air traffic control centers, and tower systems. During his earlier career, he developed algorithms for a number of real-time supervisory command and control systems for the mass transit, aviation, chemical, nuclear, communication, and electric power industries. He developed complex algorithms that comprised of large-scale matrix operations, state-estimation, stochastic control, Kalman Filtering, optimization, and real-time solution techniques. He held two overseas assignments in Europe and South America in developing customer specifications for large power system generation and grids automation and control.

Dr. Habib has received a number of awards and commodations including the Yuri Gagarin Medal of Honor by the Russian Government. Dr. Habib holds a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from Northern Arizona University, master's degree also in electrical engineering from Arizona State University, and Doctorate of Science degree in systems and non linear controls from the George Washington University. His area of specialization was Continuous Time Neural Network Controller for Non Linear Systems. He is a registered professional engineer. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Etta Kappa Nu honor societies. He also is a member of IEEE and AIAA.