Asif Azam Siddiqi

Siddiqi was born to Hafiz G. A. Siddiqi, Vice-Chancellor of North South University in Dhaka and Najma Siddiqi, a retired professor of philosophy at Jahangirnagar University. He passed SSC from St. Joseph Higher Secondary School, Dhaka. Siddiqi received his bachelor's and master's from Texas A&M University. He then completed his M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004 under a National Science Foundation Fellowship to study Cold War science and technologies.{{cite web|url=https://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/asif.html|title=Biography of Asif A. Siddiqi on NASA|accessdate=20 April 2016|publisher=NASA}}

Siddiqi's first book Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974 is widely considered{{cite web |title=Asif Siddiqi |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/contributor/asif-siddiqi/ |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |access-date=20 May 2022}}{{cite web |title=THE SOVIET SPACE RACE WITH APOLLO |url=https://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813026282 |website=University Press of Florida |access-date=20 May 2022}}{{cite web |title=The best books on the Soviet space program and the space race |url=https://shepherd.com/best-books/the-soviet-space-program |website=Shepherd.com |access-date=20 May 2022}} to be the best English-language history of the Soviet space program in print and was identified by The Wall Street Journal as "one of the five best books" on space exploration.{{cite web|url=http://www.sajaforum.org/2006/12/books_asif.html|title=SAJAforum|accessdate=20 April 2016}}{{cite news |author=William Burrows |date=30 December 2006 |title=Five Best |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116743216335962786 |work=The Wall Street Journal |accessdate=20 April 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/campus_resources/enewsroom/inside_fordham/march_2_2007/news/wall_street_journal__25309.asp |title=Wall Street Journal Names Professor's Book Among Top Five |website=Fordham University |accessdate=20 April 2016}} This book was later published in paperback in two separate volumes, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge and The Soviet Space Race with Apollo.

Siddiqi's major contribution to space history scholarship has been to apply academic training, theory, and methodology to the study of Soviet space program history. Siddiqi utilized newly available archival materials from Russia, published works such as memoirs, and other sources and essentially pioneered Soviet space history scholarship in the post Cold War-era. Even current Russian-based space history tends to rely heavily upon memoirs and as a result, Siddiqi is acknowledged by Russian space officials as one of the few people conducting original archival research on the subject worldwide. His articles have been published in the leading Russian space journal Novosti kosmonavtiki (News of Cosmonautics){{cite magazine |author=Asif Siddiqi |date=June 2007 |script-title=ru:Королёв - взгляд с Запада |trans-title=Korolev - A view from the West |url=http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/mag/2007/673/23199/ |language=ru |magazine=Novosti kosmonavtiki |access-date=30 November 2016 |archive-date=2 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502021759/http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/mag/2007/673/23199/ |url-status=dead }} as well as the official history journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki (Problems in the History of Natural Sciences and Technology). He also regularly publishes pieces in the Moscow English language daily, Moscow Times.{{cite news|author=Asif Siddiqi |date=28 September 2007 |title=Space Odyssey: Fifty years after Sputnik streaked into the sky, a book by Matthew Brzezinski reconstructs the dawn of a new age |url=http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/09/28/105.html |newspaper=The Moscow Times |archive-url=https://archive.today/20071225075931/http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/09/28/105.html |archive-date=2007-12-25 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |author=Asif Siddiqi |title=CONTEXT - This Week in Arts and Ideas |url=http://context.themoscowtimes.com/print.php?aid=185451 |newspaper=The Moscow Times}}{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

He is a currently serving on the United States National Research Council's Committee on Human Spaceflight, tasked by Congress to evaluate and recommend options for the future of NASA's human spaceflight program.

Siddiqi is also the editor of the series Rockets and People which are the four volume English-language translation of the memoirs of Boris Chertok, a leading designer who worked under Sergei Korolev. These volumes are being published by the NASA History Division.{{cite web|url=http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/feb/HQ_12-054_Chertok_Rockets_and_People.html|title=NASA - NASA Completes Publication of Boris Chertok's Rockets and People Memoir Series|accessdate=20 April 2016}}

He was featured in the NOVA WGBH-TV special Astrospies{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/astrospies/racetoday.html|title=NOVA - Official Website - The Space Race Today|website=PBS |accessdate=20 April 2016}} broadcast in 2008, and has been featured in various media as a specialist in the history of spaceflight.

He has received the American Historical Association's Fellowship in Aerospace history,{{cite web|url=http://www.historians.org/prizes/awarded/NASAWinner.htm|title=AHA Awards and Prizes|accessdate=20 April 2016}} the Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award,{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pasa/is_200203/ai_324601047|title=FindArticles.com - CBSi|accessdate=20 April 2016}} the History Manuscript Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,{{cite web |url=http://www.aiaa.org/portal/index.cfm?adview=12&tcspageid=1347&getcomm=67 |url-status=dead |title=AIAA History Manuscript Award |website=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809184306/http://www.aiaa.org/portal/index.cfm?adview=12&tcspageid=1347&getcomm=67 |archive-date=9 August 2011 |access-date=20 April 2016}} and a National Science Foundation award for work on his Ph.D. dissertation.{{cite web|url=https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0137857|title= Award#0137857 - Dissertation Research: The Rockets' Red Glare: State, Society, and Technological Innovation in the Soviet Union, 1917-1957 |website=NSF Award Search |accessdate=20 April 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513230427/http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0137857 |archive-date= 2016-05-13}}

Siddiq's most recent book The Red Rockets' Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857-1957 (Cambridge, 2010) recovered the social and cultural roots of cosmic enthusiasm in the Russian context dating back to the 19th century.{{cite web|url=http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item2710250/?site_locale=en_GB|title=The Red Rockets' Glare|author=Asif A. Siddiqi|date=26 February 2010|work=Cambridge University Press|accessdate=20 April 2016}} He has published widely in many different journals, including the Osiris, Technology and Culture, History and Technology, Europe-Asia Studies, Acta Astronautica, Air & Space,{{cite web|url=http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/russian_space_dream.html|title=History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places - Air & Space Magazine|accessdate=20 April 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/sputnik_creator.html|title=History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places - Air & Space Magazine|accessdate=20 April 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130116141159/http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/sputnik_creator.html|archive-date=16 January 2013}} Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, and Spaceflight.{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/download/downloads/id/2180/asif_siddiqi_cv.pdf |title=Asif Siddiqi Curriculum Vitae |website=Fordham University}}

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• [http://www.asifsiddiqi.com Profile and list of Publications]

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