Nazeer Ahmed

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.

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.

Current Positions

• 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

Achievements

• 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

Professional and Academic Experience

• 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."