Nasser Barghouty

Chief Scientist & Quantum Science and Technology Lead, Space Communications and Navigation NASA

Dr. Barghouty joined NASA SCaN in 2019 as its chief scientist, with the primary goal to build up SCaN’s quantum communications and networking strategic capabilities. Before joining SCaN he served as the technology lead for the Astrophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Dr. Barghouty joined NASA in 2004 from academia to start a space radiation and shielding program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where he also served as chief of the Astrophysics Branch, 2012-2017. His academic career includes appointments at Caltech, the University of Arizona, Tennessee Technological University, and Roanoke College in Salem, VA, where he was named as Brian H. Thornhill Professor of Physics in 1998. His awards and recognitions include Marshall’s Software-of-the-Year award in 2016, and a Fulbright Fellowship in 1998. Dr. Barghouty holds a doctorate in theoretical nuclear physics and a masters in physics from Kent State University in Kent, OH, and a bachelors in electrical engineering from San Jose State University, in San Jose, CA.