13 Facts About Aaron Yazzie

Aaron Yazzie was born on 1986 and is a Dine mechanical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Aaron Yazzie has worked on the Mars Science Laboratory, InSight, and Mars 2020 missions.

Aaron Yazzie was born in 1986 in Tuba City, Arizona, part of the Navajo Nation, and raised in Holbrook, Arizona, where his father was a civil engineer and his mother was a math teacher.

Aaron Yazzie had originally planned on attending a public university in Arizona, but he decided to apply to Stanford University after meeting an admissions counselor at a pre-college summer program for Native Americans.

Aaron Yazzie graduated from Stanford in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.

Aaron Yazzie has worked on the Mars Science Laboratory, InSight, and Mars 2020 missions.

Since joining JPL, Aaron Yazzie has been involved in recruiting other Native Americans to work at NASA.

Aaron Yazzie has said that the surface of Mars reminds him of the landscape near his Tuba City birthplace.

Aaron Yazzie's parents were both first generation college students and he credits them with encouraging him to get a college education.

Aaron Yazzie is actively involved in outreach to Native students and attributes success in his career to the work ethic instilled in him by his Navajo upbringing.

Aaron Yazzie has had a long involvement with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society.

Aaron Yazzie was an AISES college scholarship recipient, as well as the president of the Stanford chapter.

Aaron Yazzie was featured in the book Notable Native People by Adrienne Keene.