Issa A.D. Nesnas, Ph.D. is a principal robotics technologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and associate director at Caltech’s Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies. He is also the JPL lead on NASA’s Autonomous Systems Capability Leadership Team. Issa served as the supervisor for the Robotic Mobility Group, which led the development of the autonomous surface navigation for the Perseverance rover. He led research in architecting autonomous systems as well as in-space navigation for approaching small bodies. His other research interests include extreme terrain and microgravity mobility. Issa received a B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from Manhattan College, NY, in 1991. He earned the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, IN, in 1993 and 1995 respectively.
Caltech Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST) bio page.