Biography
Scientist, inventor, historian, legislator and philanthropist Dr. Nazeer Ahmed was born in Tumkur in the princely state of Mysore, India in 1939 into a farming family. His father Abdul Azeem was a sufi spiritual scholar of the Qadariya Order. A brilliant student, he secured the first rank to the state in the public examination of 1952 and secured the Maharaja of Mysore gold medal. He maintained his status as a rank student throughout his career and is referred to in his native state of Karnataka as Rank Nazeer.
Current Positions
Education
Achievements
Professional and Academic Experience
Scientist, inventor, historian, legislator and philanthropist Dr. Nazeer Ahmed was born in Tumkur in the princely state of Mysore, India in 1939 into a farming family. His father Abdul Azeem was a sufi spiritual scholar of the Qadariya Order. A brilliant student, he secured the first rank to the state in the public examination of 1952 and secured the Maharaja of Mysore gold medal. He maintained his status as a rank student throughout his career and is referred to in his native state of Karnataka as Rank Nazeer.
In 1961 he proceeded to the California Institute of
Technology as Institute Scholar and as a Tata Scholar. He obtained his MS and
AeE degrees from Caltech. In 1964-65 he worked in Huntsville, Alabama on the
Saturn, Apollo and Lunar Land Rover Projects at the Marshall Space Flight
Center. In 1967 he obtained a PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from
Cornell University. He studied management under Peter Drucker at New York University
and obtained an MBA fromRider University, New Jersey. In 1977, he returned
briefly to India and was elected a member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly
from the 57th constituency.
Over the years, Dr. Ahmed provided leadership to a host
to projects of national importance. He is best known for his work as Project
Manager on the Hubble Space Telescope. He designed, assembled, tested and
delivered diffraction limited performance in the Secondary Mirror Assembly of
the Hubble. Dr. Ahmed holds twelve U.S. patents in advanced composites and
space based lasers. He was a chairman of the AIRAPT conference in high pressure
physics in [Denver]], CO in 1977. His articles have appeared in the Journal of
Applied Physics, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Journal of the Acoustical
Society of America and also in the Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Ahmed has written extensively on Islamic History
and Culture. His two volume study, Islam in Global History was published in the
United States and was translated into Urdu. He is the author of an Encyclopedia
of Islamic History (www.historyofislam.com) as well as a spiritual treatise
"What Makes Us Human?" Dr. Ahmed currently serves as the director of
the American Institute of Islamic History and Culture in California. He is also
an advisor to the World Organization for Resource Development and Education in
Washington, DC and to HMS Institute of Technology, India. He also serves on the
Steering Committee of Elijah Institute, Jerusalem, Israel.
Dr. Ahmed was an Elected Delegate to the Democratic
National Convention, 42nd Congressional District in California in 1988. He also
was a candidate for US Congress, 46 CA Congressional District in 1992.
In India, he has been supporting the poor and
marginalized sections of the society of all communities in India, to help them
integrate into mainstream society and contribute to a better world. Since late
1990s this has largely happened through a scholarship fund that he has set up
known as ‘Rank Nazeer Foundation’.
At a time when the Muslims of Tumkur were experiencing
hardship in burying their dead due to lack of space in the existing cemetery,
he donated over 6 acres of land in the city in 2008, worth millions of Rupees.
He has personally designedand constructed a unique Eidgah, a Muslim prayer structure,
on this land. According to the inscription besides this Eidgah, which faces
Mecca - the direction in which Muslims all around the world turn to pray each
day, This structure is unique in that it has built into it subtleties that go
beyond the ordinary. First, the divine name “Allah” is built into the
structure, read right to left as is its reflection, read left to right. The
reflection suggests the world is illusory and is only a reflection of the
heavens. Secondly, each of the smaller minarets is nineteen feet from the
ground. The number nineteen is a mystical number in Islam that appears in the
Qur'an. The intermediate sized minarets are nineteen feet from the base. So,
altogether there are six minarets that are nineteen feet each. Six times
nineteen is 114, which is the total number of surahs in the Qur'an, a Book that
completes God's favours upon humankind. Straight lines drawn from the apex of
the minarets intersect where the word "Huwa" is inscribed in a red
circle. The subtended angle of 112 degrees is twice the natural flow angle of
the earth into which we return. This flow angle is a solution to a Legendre
polynomial of the second order which was presented in a paper by Dr. Ahmed at
the fourth National Congress of Applied Mechanics at Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass in 1972. Huwa is the abstract divine pronoun for God, most
exalted. The circle is a reminder of "two bows length or less"
wrapped around that shrouded prophet Muhammed when stood in divine presence
during Me'raj. Dr. Ahmed has also built mosques (1995)and a school in Tumkur,
India in cooperation with the Peace Corps of the United States (1967).
Recently, Dr. Ahmed completed a translation of the
Qur’an into easy to read American English. It was released by Maulana Rashdi of
Masjid Bangalore and has received wide acclaim in Indian as well as Arab press.
- Chairman Delixus
- Executive Director, American Institute of Islamic History and Culture
- Director, World Organization for Resource Development and Education, Washington, DC
- Director, HMS IT, Tumkur, India
Education
- MBA. (Management ), Rider University, Trenton, NJ. June 75
- Ph.D. (Applied Mechanics), Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., June 67
- Ae. E. (Aeronautics), Caltech, Pasadena, CA, June 64
- M.S. (Aeronautics), Caltech, Pasadena, CA, June 62
- BS (Engineering), University of Mysore (summa cum laude), India, June 61
- PE, State of California
- 12 United States Patents in space based lasers and engineering
- Author, "Islam in Global History", Vols. 1 and 2. Xlibris Corporation.
- Author, "What Makes Us Human? A Spiritual Perspective"[14]Xlibris Corporation
- Author, "Islam in Global History", Vols. 1 and 2, Suhail Academy
- Director, Encyclopedia of Islamic History
- Program Manager, SDI Programs for the US Department of Defense
- Chief Scientist, Hubble Space Telescope
- Structures work on the Saturn, Apollo rockets and Lunar Land Rover.
- Institute Scholar, California Institute of Technology
- Scores of articles in science and technology journals
- Executive Director, American Institute of Islamic History and Culture (1999–Present)
- Chairman, Delixus
- Consulting Dean, HMS Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India (1998–2004)
- Director, Systems Development, OEA Aerospace, Fairfield, CA. (1997–98)
- Senior Vice-President, Compa Industries, Albuquerque, NM. (1994–97)
- Adjunct Professor, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (1995–96)
- Program Manager, Hughes Aircraft Co., El Segundo, CA, (1986–94)
- Department Manager, Electro-optical Systems, Hughes Aircraft Co., CA, (1984–86)
- Project Manager, Hughes Aircraft Co., El Segundo, CA. (1982–84)
- Senior Staff, Perkin Elmer Corporation, Danbury, CT, (1979–82)
- Senior Engineer, Lucent Technologies (formerly Western Electric), (1967–77)
- Institute Scholar, Caltech, Pasadena, CA (1961–64)
Contribution to community
At a time when Muslims of Tumkur were experiencing
hardship in burying their dead due to lack of space in the existingcemetery, he
donated over 6 acres of land in the city in 2008, worth millions of Rupees. He
has personally designed and constructed a unique Eidgah, a Muslim prayer
structure, on this land. According to the inscription besides this Eidgah,
which faces Mecca - the direction in which Muslims all around the world turn to
pray each day, "This structure is unique in that it has built into it
subtleties that go beyond the ordinary. First, the divine name “Allah” is built
into the structure, read right to left as is its reflection, read left to
right. The reflection suggests the world is illusory and is only a reflection
of the heavens. Secondly, each of the smaller minarets is nineteen feet from
the ground. The number nineteen is a mystical number in Islam that appears in
the Qur'an. The intermediate sized minarets are nineteen feet from the base. So,
altogether there are six minarets that are nineteen feet each. Six times
nineteen is 114, which is the total number of surahs in the Qur'an, a Book that
completes God's favours upon humankind. Straight lines drawn from the apex of
the minarets intersect where the word "Huwa" is inscribed in ared
circle. The subtended angle of 112 degrees is twice the natural flow angle of
the earth into which we return. Huwa is the abstract divine pronoun for God,
most exalted. The circle is a reminder of "two bows length or less"
wrapped around that shrouded prophet Muhammed when stood in divine presence
during Me'raj."
