Nastaran Shafiei a full-time scientist at NASA Ames Research Center/SGT and a part-time artist. She holds a PhD in computer science from York University in Toronto, and a diploma in painting from Seda Sima Art School in Tehran.
In parallel to her research career at NASA, she has been actively painting. She started painting at an early age and studied painting at Seda Sima Art School in Tehran. After acquiring her diploma from Seda Sima, she continued painting at different studios with different artists.
After moving to Toronto where she spent a decade of her life, she continued her education in painting at George Brown College.
She is currently a resident of San Francisco, and has a painting studio space located at Art Explosion Studios where she continues to pursue her art career.