Dr. Sajjad Durrani

Dr. Sajjad Durrani joined NASA in 1974, and held research and management positions in the area of space communications at Goddard Space Flight Center and at NASA Headquarters. At Goddard his assignments included System Planning Manager for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, and Research and Planning Manager for the Communications Division; he was also detailed on a part time basis to the Office of Telecommunications Policy (OTP) in the Executive Office of the President, and its successor, the NTIA. At NASA HQ he was Chief Scientist in the Communications Division (for the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) program), and a Program Manager of Advanced Systems in the Office of Space Communications (for R&D in communications and navigation at GSFC and JPL). He received three Special Achievement Awards for his service with NASA.

After retiring from NASA in 1992, he worked with Computer Sciences Corporation on NASA-related tasks, and retired from CSC in October 1998. He was a Guest Lecturer on space communications at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France in 1998, and served in Pakistan in 1999 as a Consultant to SUPARCO under the UN Development Program. In 2000-2001 he was an IEEE-USA Executive Fellow with the Office of Engineering and Technology of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, DC. He then served with the U.S. Department of State under a similar IEEE program, first as a Technical Advisor to the Communications and Information Policy Office in the Bureau of Economic Affairs (EB/CIP) in 2004, and then as Senior Advisor in the Science and Technology Cooperation Office of the Bureau of Oceans and Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES/STC) till May 2005.

Dr. Durrani is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and has been active in the IEEE for almost 40 years. He held various positions in the Washington Section in the 1970s and became Section Chair in 1980-81. He received the US Activities Board’s Citation of Honor in 1980 and the Region 2 Outstanding Member Award in 1982. He was President of the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS) in 1982 and 1983, and a member of the IEEE Board of Directors in 1984 and 1985. He has served on four major IEEE Boards, served on or chaired several of their Committees, and served on the Editorial Boards of the IEEE SPECTRUM and the PROCEEDINGS of the IEEE. More recently, he was Chair of the IEEE National Capital Area Council in Washington, D.C. in 2002. He has also served as a Program Evaluator for Electrical Engineering at several universities, as part of the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET).

Dr. Durrani has given courses on Satellite Communications in the U.S. and more than 25 other countries, and received the IEEE Educational Activities Board's Meritorious Achievement Award in Continuing Education in 1994. For his professional services, he received the CSC President's Excellence Award in 1996, as an "Ambassador" to the profession. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and a Fellow of the Washington Academy of Sciences, where he was one of its Vice Presidents from 2001 to 2004. He is Vice President of the DC Council of Engineering and Architectural Societies for 2005-06.

Sajjad Durrani was born in 1928. He received a B.A. from the Government College, Lahore in 1946, a B.Sc. Engineering (Honors) from the Engineering College, Lahore in 1949, a Master's degree from the Manchester Institute of Technology, England in 1953, and a doctorate from the University of New Mexico, USA, in 1962. He taught for more than 10 years at several universities, and was Head of the E.E. Department in the newly formed Engineering University in Lahore in 1964-65, and Associate Professor in Kansas State University in 1965-66. He also worked in industry for 10 years with GE, RCA, Comsat Labs, and Operations Research, Inc., as a Senior Engineer or Branch Manager.