Bio
Sepehr Bastami serves as an Aerospace Research Engineer and joined the Crew Systems and Aviation Operations Branch in January of 2022. His research at the CSAOB is focused on sustainable aviation and studying human contributions to safety. Mr. Bastami also supports multiple NASA SBIR contracts as a Technical Monitor and Technical Reviewer in aeronautics. He also serves as an alternate subtopic manager for H4.06 Low-power Multi-gas Sensor for Spacesuits out of Johnson Space Center.
From April to December 2020, Sepehr took part in the NASA FIRST (Foundations of Influence, Relationships, Success, and Teamwork) program; a highly competitive, agency-wide leadership development program that spanned 8 months with 60 cohort members from 10 NASA centers. Mr. Bastami served as the Deputy Project Manager for the cohort’s project on Future of Work, which was delivered to the agency’s Future of Work team at NASA headquarters.
Mr. Bastami earned an LLB in International Law in 2015 from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands. He changed career paths to engineering and earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 and a Master of Science in Engineering in 2021 from the University of Texas at Austin. He is the recipient of numerous NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium scholarships and an engineering excellence scholarship at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include extreme environment habitation, environmental control systems in aircraft and spacecraft, and radiation sciences and mitigation technologies. His hobbies include hiking, diving, working on various invention ideas, and studying the potential of mycelia in in-situ resource utilization for growing food on Mars.
Mr. Bastami is a volunteer with the Civil Air Patrol, two Search and Rescue organizations, and enjoys supporting environmental stewardship. Mr. Bastami is also training to become a private pilot.