Firouzeh won the International student prize at Swansea on her way to achieving a first in Physics. During her undergraduate years she also received a Nuffield Foundation Research Bursary Award which gave her the opportunity to perform research under the supervision of Professor Michael Disney, Cardiff University in 1994.
A talented academic, Firouzeh then went on to complete her PhD in Cambridge at the Cavendish and turned down a job at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and instead accepted a position at the NIH/ NIDCD in Bethesda Maryland.
Firouzeh is currently the Chair of the University of Memphis, Dept. of Physics and Materials Science (she is the first woman to hold the position) where her work is still involved with the space programme. She has contributed to the Mars rover programme specifically the Phonenix Lander which landed in 2008. Her contribution involved designing a thin conductive film for the rover‘s calibration targets to help mitigate the dust accumulation issues.
Her recent research in Materials Physics has been selected by the ISSNL (International Space Station National Lab) to be included in the payload for a September launch date. Her research goals include understanding how extreme Radiation and Temperature conditions affect Excitation/ emission of Thermographic Phosphors.
In 2010 she served as a Workshop Leader in Space Materials at the International Space University (ISU) Summer program in Strasbourg, France . In addition to her research Firouzeh is also the founder and current director of the MemphisCRESH summer internship program for the College of Arts and Sciences (www.memphis.edu/cresh/). The initiative brings talented high school students into the University for a summer research program to experience a research environment and work alongside undergraduate and graduate students on areas of research including cancer, solar energy and materials for space exploration.
In 2008 Firouzeh was awarded the APS M. Hildred Blewett Award. In 2016 she received the University of Memphis Eye of the Tiger Alumni Association Award. Firouzeh is also the recipient of an Overseas Research Students (ORS) Awards, Cambridge Commonwealth Trust (CCT) Award, and Trinity College Bursary Award.
