Emirates Mars Mission chief appointed to UAE Diplomatic Corps

The engineer who led the Emirates Mars Mission has been appointed as a member of the UAE Diplomatic and Consular Corps with the rank of ambassador.

Omran Sharaf has also been appointed as Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to handle the Advanced Science and Technology portfolio.

President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Nahyan has issued a federal decree assigning him these roles.

Early this year, Sharaf was elected to serve as the Director of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

He is the Project Director of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) and is a former member of the UAE delegation to the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG).

Sharaf was responsible for developing, launching, and operating projects at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), including responsibility for developing and implementing the Command & Data Handling Subsystem (C&DH) for DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2, along with being a system engineer of that project.

The 38-year-old earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia, USA, in 2005, and his Master's in Science and Technology Policy from the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea, in 2013.