By John D. Sutter, CNN
(CNN) - Forget Rick Moranis glasses, starchy button-ups and pocket protectors.
Meet the new generation at NASA: Bobak Ferdowsi, better known as "Mohawk Guy." Ferdowsi was spotted wearing a red-and-black mohawk with yellow stars dyed on the sides of his head during the U.S. space agency's overnight landing of its Mars rover, "Curiosity."
The Internet quickly turned him into a meme, superimposing text like "The Mohawk That Landed a Rover on Mars" and "Becomes an Internet sensation ... Too busy landing a robot on Mars to notice" over his images.
In case you'd forgotten, here's what the old guard at NASA looked like:
That's from the Apollo 11 landing.
Maybe the contrast, in part, explains "Mohawk Guy's" popularity.
There's an entire Tumblr blog dedicated to Ferdowsi, and several recreations of his likeness, including one that looks to be done in watercolors (but that might just be Instagram). And BuzzFeed has at least a half-dozen images of him on its site, from "Busy Bobak" to "Teamwork Bobak" and "Talking Bobak," which links to this video of him talking about Saturn (to some really bizarre music).
That's pre-mohawk, of course. It sounds like he changed his hair for this mission:
Folks asking about my hair, here it is. Been doing this for big events on #MSL #jpl #nasa #curiosity #daremightythings http://t.co/hK73K6o5—
Bobak F. (@tweetsoutloud) August 06, 2012
On Twitter, some people lauded him as the face of a new generation in science:
You guys, there is a guy working at NASA who has a mohawk! PUNK SCIENCE!—
Lindsay Pavlas (@LindsayPavlas) August 06, 2012
And just gawked:
NASA Mohawk Guy has stolen my heart—
Katie Tiedrich (@katietiedrich) August 06, 2012
Nice mohawk, control room guy.—
southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) August 06, 2012
+50 points to the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab employee with the mohawk.—
Justin Pickard (@justinpickard) August 06, 2012
NASATV just showed a dedicated engineer who shaved his hair in a "stars and stripes" mohawk for #MSL landing. Hope we see him again.—
New Scientist (@newscientist) August 06, 2012
A feed that mocks North Korea's leader asked him for help:
URGENT MUST LOCATE NASA DUDE WITH MOHAWK NEED HELP MAKING ROCKET GO FARTHER CONTACT ME ON MYSPACE KTHXBYE—
(@KimJongNumberUn) August 06, 2012
Meanwhile, Ferdowsi seems to be a pretty good sport about the whole thing:
Internet, you win this round. I'll be back later, but thanks so much. Now going to celebrate with all my friends and team! #msl—
Bobak F. (@tweetsoutloud) August 06, 2012
For more (and more-serious) info on "Curiosity," check out CNN's news story on the topic. And we have the photos.
Via The Atlantic, Buzzfeed, The Guardian
Each week, CNN's "The Next List" profiles innovators, visionaries and agents of change. They’re not household names just yet, but they’re movers and shakers in their own worlds. We’re introducing them to you because these individuals are steadily mapping the course to the future with their new ideas.
WHO: Host Dr. Sanjay Gupta
WHEN: Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. ET - All new time!
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© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Oh and this guy has nothing on hair when compared to Einstein! Genius doesn't care what others think about the way they look! They have more important things to concern themselves with!
the pictures are great! the black & white ones are amaizng!! i like the face in the purple shirt pic, but not the purple shirt so much the first one w/the blue shirt is really pretty! they are all great images, great job emily and jennifer!!! and yes, someday we'll be going to lincoln center opera to see emily!!!
mmmm he's cute too
He's Iranian.
*nervously awaiting your reaction*
he s cute and seems smart, but I think ladies need to stop getting high everytime a cute guy is around the corner, and the mohawk makes him looks really cool: cute, intelligent and rebel. Three components to make girls go c r a z y. Sometimes i am ashamed of being a girl, we get so easily distracted and excited, silly
But he s cute though
This guy is just a small piece of a big system. It's not like he landed the Rover all by himself! Get real people. We get so easily distracted by the bizarre!
and we have another @ s $ hole who turns a good thing into a bad thing.
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Bizarre? I see fun, don't see bizarre at all...
Hey, anything that brings positive attention to NASA is good for NASA . . . so I don't see all the attention that's being given to Mohawk Guy as a bad thing or as a distraction from the rover at all. In fact, Mohawk Guy makes NASA seem very hip and may inspire young people to pay more attention to science and, who knows, perhaps follow in his footsteps career-wise.
I realize he changes his hair for big events and may not have this hair all the time but I know so many successful young people with tats, fun hair and funky clothes. They are the awesome geeks and nerds (loving terms, finally) with super intelligence and drive who realize intelligence is about what is inside the brain not outside the body. So glad the pompous days are slowly dying.
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