NASA Engineer Becomes Internet Sensation

It was the moment of elation when the rover, Curiosity, landed on Mars.

The team of NASA scientists and engineers who pulled it off were overjoyed!

But one guy really stood out—the engineer with the funky hairstyle. And now, everyone is asking, who's the dude with the mohawk?

His name is Bobak Ferdowsi, and he's a flight director of the mission to Mars. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he's a far cry from the buttoned-up rocket scientists we're used to seeing at NASA.

"You are being called the coolest geek in America. How do you feel about that?" asked INSIDE EDITION's Victoria Recano.

"That's a lot to handle, I guess. But no, I'm really excited to kind of show that it takes all types to make things like this happen," said Ferdowsi.

Since the Mars landing Sunday, Ferdowsi has become an internet sensation. His mohawk has inspired some hilarious captions.

"You'll never get a good job with a haircut like that," read one.

"I want to work at NASA. But now I dont think I'm cool enough," read another.

So why the mohawk? Well, Ferdowsi gets a different wacky hairstyle for every mission, and the entire NASA team at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasedena, California gets to vote on it! This time they voted for a stars and stripes mohawk.

And it's quite a creation.

"You can see the little pieces of hair in red and blue, and the stars kind of going down the side here," described Ferdowsi.

Now that his mohawk has launched him into the stratosphere, Ferdowsi has been flooded with propositions from female admirers. Sorry to say ladies, he's taken. But he does have some dating advice.

"But I'm going to give my friends some good dating advice—if you want to get a lot of dates, just land a rover on Mars," joked Ferdowsi.