Mark Leon | |
---|---|
Born | 1962 |
Died | April 2018 |
Occupation(s) | electrical engineer, civil servant |
Known for | MCing at many FIRST robotics competitions |
Mark Leon (1962 – April 2018) was a former civil servant with NASA Ames Research Center. His primary work was in education and communication systems.
Mark Leon grew up in a rather rough East San Jose neighborhood, and graduated from James Lick High School in 1980. He originally began taking a slightly more academic route to life when he began hiding in the library from other high school students who were attempting to beat him up. [1]
He also attended San Jose State University [2] and won a silver medal in the 1985 Collegiate National Judo Championships. [1] He received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1986. [3]
In the 1980s Leon was instrumental in establishing trans-Atlantic communication between American, French and English space agencies. In the 1990s he completed the first audio/video link to Antarctica. This was thought to be impossible at the time. [4]
For many years Mark Leon worked as a Master of Ceremonies in many FIRST robotics competition events both on and off season. He was particularly well known for wearing a bright blue NASA coat and dying his hair the same color for these events and coined the phrase "Do the math, Save the world". [5] [1] He was widely cited as an inspiration to many high school students to build robots and impacted many career choices. He is also credited with the existence of a large number of FRC teams. [6]
Beginning in 1998 Mark moved to the Robotics Alliance Project at NASA Ames. [1] This department works primarily in educational and outreach projects and was estimated in 2006 to have reached more than 100,000 middle and high school students. [4] He also ran the Ames Robotics Academy every summer. [7]