Speakers

Stoewer was the European Space Agency’s (ESA) first program Manager for the Spacelab project, where he created a strong systems group. Stoewer also founded the ESA’s Systems Engineering and Programmatics Department, where he implemented an end-to-end systems engineering philosophy across ESA projects. He served as managing director of the German Space Agency’s national space science and applications projects.

Andreja Gomboc received her PhD in physics at the University of Ljubljana in 2001, followed by Marie Sklodowska Curie postdoctoral fellowship at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Currently she is professor of astronomy at the University of Nova Gorica, where she is leading Slovenian participation in the Vera Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Her main fields of research are astrophysical transients (tidal disruption of stars in vicinity of massive black holes, gamma ray bursts, electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events), and relativistic navigation satellite systems.

Manuel La Rosa Betancourt, CEO, is a German entrepreneur borne in Venezuela. He holds a degree in materials science engineering and a master's degree in business innovation. Manuel brings over 20 years of experience in technology, business and marketing and has worked in several multinational companies such as LANXESS and Honeywell. He has entrepreneurial experience, having founded his own consulting firm for innovation management in 2009 and managing it full-time between 2014 and 2019. Between 2016 and 2019, he built up several EU consortia for superconductors in Space. During this time, he developed a comprehensive overview of the HTS, aviation, marine, and space industries. In 2019, Manuel dedicated full-time to setting up Neutron Star Systems. Manuel’s knowledge of innovation management, cross-pollination, and deep tech development is key for charting the business roadmap of NSS from prototype to fully commercial products.

Martin Quack is professor of physical chemistry at ETH Zürich, His research group investigates the quantum dynamics and kinetics of molecules both theoretically and experimentally, with special emphasis on the dynamics of tunneling and parity violation (due to the electroweak interaction of the standard model) in chiral molecules. He has been elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as a corresponding member of Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities. From 2002 to 2011 he had been member of the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation. In 2014 he was elected as member of the presidium of the German Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina

Yi Li is an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean at the School of Astronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China. His research group works on sounding rockets and aerodynamics related to spacecraft. He also works on space education. In 2017, he founded the first students’ club of sounding rocket in China. He is also a division director of Shaanxi Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. From 2009 to 2014, he worked as a PhD student at German Aerospace Center and received the doctoral degree from Technical University Braunschweig in 2015.

Pietro Giordano is in charge of multiple activities related with space GNSS receivers and space PNT concepts at ESA. Pietro worked in Thales Alenia Space Italy before joining ESA/ESTEC in 2009. He worked several years within the Galileo project covering many roles, from user segment to operations. He is now working in the ESA technical directorate as overall coordinator for spaceborne GNSS and space PNT technologies. He is in charge of the definition and coordination of the European technology harmonisation roadmap for on-board radio navigation receivers, he is involved in multiple missions such as Galileo, Copernicus/Sentinels, Proba3 and GOMX-5. He contributed in the development of new concepts such as real-time on-board autonomous POD (P2OD concept), LEO PNT payloads, definition of new spaceborne GNSS receiver components (e.g.: AGGA family ASIC) and use of GNSS signals for lunar autonomous navigation. He is the technical lead for spaceborne GNSS receivers for lunar applications and the technical system engineering lead for the navigation services within the ESA Moonlight initiative.

Prior to joining the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, Dr. Worden was Director of NASA's Ames Research Center. He was research professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona. He is a recognized expert on space and science issues and has been a leader in building partnerships between governments and the private sector internationally. Dr. Worden has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific papers in astrophysics and space sciences. He served as a scientific co-investigator for three NASA space science missions – most recently the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph launched in 2013 to study the Sun. He received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for the 1994 Clementine Mission to the moon. Dr. Worden was named the 2009 Federal Laboratory Consortium 'Laboratory Director of the Year' and is the recipient of the 2010 Arthur C. Clarke Innovator's Award.

Dragan Poljak received his PhD in el. Eng. in 1996 from the Univ. of Split, Croatia. He is the Full Prof. at Dept. of Electron. and Computing, Univ. of Split. His research interests include computational electromagnetics (electromagnetic compatibility, bioelectromagnetics, ground penetrating radar and plasma physics). To date Prof. Poljak has published more than 160 journ. and 250 conf. papers, and authored some books, e.g. two by Wiley, New Jersey and one by Elsevier, St Louis. He is a Senior member of IEEE, a member of Editorial Board of Eng. Anal. with Boundary Elements, Math. Problems in Eng. And IET Sci. Measur. & Techn. He was awarded by several prizes for his research achievements, such as National Prize for Science (2004), Croatian sect. of IEEE annual Award (2016), Technical Achievement Award of the IEEE EMC Society (2019) and George Green Medal from University of Mississippi (2021). From May 2013 to June 2021 Prof. Poljak was a member of the board of the Croatian Science Foundation. He was involved in ITER physics EUROfusion collaboration and he is currently involved in DONES EUROfusion collaboration and in Croatian center for excellence in research for tech. sciences. He is active in few Working Groups of IEEE/Internat. Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES) Tech. Comm. 95 SC6 EMF Dosimetry Modeling, (co-chair of WG2 and WG7).

Uroš Kostić received his PhD in physics at the University of Ljubljana. While employed there, his areas of research were black holes and relativistic positioning systems. After a decade of academic jobs, he moved to private sector: he is the founder and the CEO of Aalta Lab d.o.o, a company offering consultancy services in data analysis, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing. Currently, he is also an external consultant for the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. He is still actively involved in ESA projects related to relativistic positioning systems as a project manager and a researcher.

Professor V. Lappas graduated with a B. Eng in Aerospace Engineering at Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada), his MSc in Space Technology at NASA (Goddard Space Flight Centre) through the International Space University (France) and his PhD in Space Vehicle Control at the University of Surrey (UK). He has led various significant research grants on satellite technology, space missions, space debris, funded by the United States Air Force, NASA, Airbus, European Space Agency, European Commission. He has managed substantial research grants including the EU funded QB50, RemoveDEBRIS space missions and the European Defence Agency EuroSWARM project which is one of Europe’s first Defence R&D pilot projects. Prof Lappas has also researched innovative teaching methodologies for engineering based on Peer Instructions in collaboration with Prof Eric Mazur (Harvard University) and has organised multiple school and university teaching activities focused on the promotion of STEM and space subjects. He is currently Professor of Aerospace Systems and Department Head at the Department of Aerospace Science & Technology of the University of Athens (Greece) and a Consulting Professor in Aerospace Systems at Cranfield University (UK). His current research includes development of unmanned vehicles for defence applications, satellite/space systems, launch vehicle design, small satellites funded by the EU, United States Air Force and European Space Agency. He also teaches Flight Controls, Dynamics and Satellite Communications at Cranfield University and supervises MSc student projects and PhD researchers for the MSc in Astronautics/Space and Autonomous systems (AVDC).

Astrophysicist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology and a professor at the Physics and Astronomy Department of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Turyshev earned his M.S. in physics (with honors) and a PhD in quantum field theory from the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia in 1987 and 1990, correspondingly. In 2008, he earned the Doctor of Science degree (Habilitation) in astrophysics from the same university. His primary research areas include gravitational and fundamental physics in space, research in relativistic astrophysics, astronomy, and planetary science. He is an expert in high-precision spacecraft navigation, solar system dynamics, satellite and lunar laser ranging, astrometry, and related technology efforts. Dr. Turyshev served as the NASA Project Scientist on the CNES/ESA Microscope mission (2016-2020); JPL Project Scientist for the Advanced Lunar Laser Ranging Facility at the Table Mountain Observatory, CA (2015-ongoing); Principal Investigator on the investigation of the Pioneer Anomaly (2003-2012). Currently, he is the Principal Investigator on the 2020 NIAC Phase III effort on the mission concept studies to use the solar gravitation lens (SGL) for multipixel imaging and spectroscopy of exoplanets. He has published over 220 papers, 2 books. Dr. Turyshev is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Dillon O'Reilly is pursuing a traditional 3-year doctoral degree in electric propulsion for interplanetary small satellites at the Southeast Technological University of Ireland. His primary interest lies in novel power processing techniques to improve efficiency, reliability and lifetime. The research is funded by the Irish government under the Irish Research Councils post-graduate grants. Before pursuing his doctoral degree, he worked for the Breakthrough Initiatives as a Junior Associate and special projects co-ordinator providing space systems support for Venus Life Finder concept studies and others alike. He earned his Bachelors degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Institute of Technology Carlow and is actively involved with the International Space Universities summer programs.