Ave K. Kludze

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Ave K. P. Kludze, Jr. is an Rocket Scientist, a Native African pioneer, U.S. Civil Servant, Complex Systems Engineering and Design Expert, and a senior NASA Spacecraft Systems Engineer.^[1]

He was born in Hohoe, in the Volta Region of Ghana. He arrived in the United States in the late 1980s with only a High School diploma from the highly respected Adisadel College in Cape Coast, Ghana. Shortly after his arrival in the United States, he enrolled at Rutgers University where he set out to pursue a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.

After graduation, he contemplated a return to Africa, Ghana to be specific, to pursue an interest in the development of various solar gadgets and merchandize, including solar freezer, solar air-conditioning, solar water heater, solar lamps, etc. He believed strongly that, for Africa to develop, it must utilize its natural resources and must incorporate technologies that benefits the continent. He considered the Sun to be a natural resource and its harness and utilization may be of great benefit to the continent.

He has demonstrated through his extemporary accomplishments that Africa, which is famously known for its troubles outside the continent does not only cultivate wars, famines, diseases, and chaos as widely broadcast. He is a living testimony to the potentials inherent in Native Africans who have found comfort after escaping the harshness of the motherland. His accomplishments show that native Africans are not only doing well in their adopted countries but are contributing tremendously to the development of these countries and their various fields of endeavors. Dr. Kludze through his work and writings has contributed in his own way to the development and understanding of our planet, science, technology, and the universe as a whole.

Ave, who grew up in Dansoman-Sahara, a suburb of Accra, made a name for himself as a young genius, who was fascinated with science at an early age; he had a reputation for questioning almost everything, and also for his unusual “domestic scientific experiments” and thinking. It was this quest for knowledge that sent him to the highest scientific organization in the world, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States.

Dr. Kludze, the Ghanaian-born American who is still at NASA, has held positions at various NASA Centers including the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia and NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where he became if not the first African, the first Ghanaian to ever command and control a Spacecraft in Orbit.

He designed the Human Locator System, which he called the "HuLos" in partial fulfillment of the requirements for his Masters degree at the Johns Hopkins University. The HuLos uses nanotechnology (microscopic technology) and is intended to locate human beings anywhere on this planet using satellite communication, the GPS and other technologies. What made the system unique at the time of its conception, though considered weird by even his advisor, were the miniaturized size and the concept of global location. The device is to be implanted under the human skull, skin bone or teeth and activated when required. The system as envisioned could be used in locating missing children, the elderly, stolen cars and hardened criminals, to name a few. The thesis which contains the design is currently at the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

In 2004, Dr. Kludze and a group of NASA engineers developed the Extravehicular Activity Infrared (EVA IR) camera for space-walking astronauts. The EVA IR camera was designed to fulfill a critical inspection need for the Shuttle Program; the on-orbit IR Camera can detect crack and surface defects in the Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC) sections of the Space Shuttle's Thermal Protection System. This camera may help discover and prevent some of the problems leading to the disintegration of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

His performance at NASA continues to amaze his classmates, colleagues, and fellow Africans. Dr. Kludze based on his expertise was selected to join the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), an organization made up of some of NASA's best and brightest, created after the Columbia incident, as a systems engineering expert. Before joining the NESC, Dr. Kludze was the manager of NASA Langley's state-of-the-art Integrated Design Center (IDC) which he helped developed. He was also, for some time, the Traceability and Verification Manager for the soon to be launched CALIPSO spacecraft. His pioneering work in systems engineering has been published worldwide; he has a number of publications, several NASA and external awards and recognitions to his credit. Though others have tried to amplify his humble background including comments like "to be born in a town without electricity and running water at the time of birth, and to become not only a U.S. government official and a rocket scientist but a senior NASA engineer and an expert in his field, is extremely impressive," Dr. Kludze continues to focus on his work and talent. Though, efforts to contact Dr. Kludze on several occasions for an interview have been unsuccessful, it has been established that the native African rocket scientist is back at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland where he will be heavily involved in several space initiatives including the implementation of the U.S. President's Space Exploration Vision to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Dr. Kludze holds bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in engineering from some of the best institutions in the world, including the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

For his distinguished achievements, Dr. Kludze was in 2002 recognised and honoured at the Second Biennial Adisadel College Excellence Awards at a colourful ceremony at the State House in Accra, by the Adisadel College Old Boy's Association and the College. Dr. Kludze is a true product of Africa; the native African's role in the U.S. space program is exemplary in all respects and must be a source of pride to all peoples of African descent.