Israeli Scientist Eliad Peretz Receives NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal

A helicopter provides security for the NASA astronauts as they are driven in their AstroVan to the space shuttle on May 31, 2008, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Heliophysics Science Division recently awarded NASA's Exceptional Achievement Medal to Israeli mission and instrument scientist Eliad Peretz, 40, for his contributions to several space missions. JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

Eliad Peretz, a 40-year-old Israeli mission and instrument scientist in the Heliophysics Science Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, recently received NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal for his contributions to multiple space missions.

Peretz works at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Raised in Afula, he is an alumnus of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in aerospace engineering. He earned his PhD in mechanical engineering and applied physics at Cornell University.