Leadership

Dr. Andrew Aldrin is currently the Program Coordinator of the Masters of Space Operations program at Embry Riddle University Worldwide and President of the Aldrin Family Foundation.

He was Director of the Aldrin Space Institute and ISU Center for Space Entrepreneurship from 2015 to 2021.

From 2007 to 2014, he was Director of Business Development for United Launch Alliance (ULA) 

Dr. Namrata Goswami is an author, professor and consultant specializing in space policy, international relations and ethnic identity. She teaches at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, the Joint Special Forces University and is a consultant for Space Fund Intelligence. She is a guest lecturer at Emory University for seminars on Technology, Society & Governance and India today. She was subject matter expert in international affairs with Futures Laboratory, Alabama. She worked as Research Fellow at MP-Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi; a visiting Fellow at Peace Research Institute, Oslo, Norway; La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia; University of Heidelberg, Germany; Jennings-Randolph Senior Fellow, United States Institute of Peace; and was a Fulbright Senior Fellowship Awardee. She was awarded the Minerva grant by Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense to study great power competition in outer space. In April 2019, Dr. Goswami testified before the U.S-China Economic and Security Review Commission on China’s space program. Her co-authored book, Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space was published 2020 by Lexington Press; Rowman and Littlefield. Her book on The Naga Ethnic Movement for a Separate Homeland was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press.  She has published widely to include in The Diplomat, the Economic Times, The Washington Post, Ad Astra, Asia Policy, Live Encounters Magazine, Cairo Review. She was invited in November 2019 to share about her life and her work at a Tedx event held at the Rosa Parks Museum, Montgomery, Alabama. She is currently working on two academic book projects, one on China’s Grand Strategy and Notions of Territoriality and the other on Spacepower Theory and Practice: Case Studies of U.S. China, India, Russia and Japan.

Adj Prof. Alissa J. Haddaji is the coordinator of the STSC SMPAG Ad-Hoc Legal Working Group on Planetary Defense, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) representative at SMPAG and the Vice-Chair of the International Astronautical Federation’s Near-Earth Object & Planetary Defense Committee.

Haddaji is also the founder and director of The Space Consortium, a grassroots community initiative for Harvard & MIT Space Affiliates, of Space Week in Boston (extended to the greater Boston area).

She is a faculty researcher and lecturer in space law, policy, ethics and sociology of space. She created and taught Harvard’s and Harvard Law School’s Space Law, Policy and Ethics curriculum (2019-2022), was a lecturer at the Harvard Astronomy Department (2021-2022) and is the Faculty Advisor of the Harvard Law School’s Space Law Society. She also launched and teaches Boston College Law School’s and Paris-Saclay University’s Space Law, Policy and Ethics courses (2022-present).

Prior to her Planetary Defense work, Haddaji served for four years as COSPAR’s Planetary Protection project officer, where she led the coordination of, and co-authored the International Planetary Protection Handbook (IPPH). She was a senior researcher in space economics at Harvard Business School (2020), a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School (2018) and a visiting scholar at the GWU Space Policy Institute (2017).

She holds a PhD in Science and Technology Studies, and Master’s Degrees in Planetary Science (spe. oceanography), History/International Relations, Political Science, Law and Socio-Anthropology, from Brown University, La Sorbonne University and Bordeaux 1 University. She is currently finishing her 2nd PhD at Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris on International Space Politics.

Michelle is co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of For All Moonkind.  She leads all legal efforts, with particular emphasis on space law.  Michelle is also Co-Director of the Center for Air and Space Law and an instructor of aviation and space law at the University of Mississippi School of Law.  She is also the President of the National Space Society.  Michelle received her B.A. in Political Science from Yale College and her J.D. magna cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center.  She earned her LLM in Air and Space Law from McGill University where the focus of her research was commercial space and the intersection of commerce and public law.

Prior to focusing on space law, Michelle was engaged in a private business law practice.  Her legal career commenced with the restructuring of sovereign debt for a number of South and Latin American countries and evolved into the negotiation and implementation of cross-border technology mergers and acquisitions.  Her subsequent solo practice advised entrepreneurs across four continents on all aspects of bringing their innovative ideas to market: from basic corporate formation to financings and buyouts.

Michelle is also a founding partner of ABH Aerospace, LLC a consulting firm which provides advice and counsel in respect of all aspects of air, space and cyber law.  She is on the Advisory Board of several start-ups involved in commercial space activities including orbital debris removal, remote sensing and the support of lunar resource extraction.  Michelle is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Law and the Journal of Drone Law and Policy.

Dan Hawk was born and raised on the Oneida Indian Reservation. On March 2022, he addressed the United Nations Legal Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space by providing history-making General Exchange of Views. Dan has been appointed to lead the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium Lunar Dust Interoperability and Standards Focus Group. He is currently working with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to prevent dust explosions in mines and factories when lightning strikes.

Dan enlisted in the Army National Guard out of high school and served in the Navy as a nuclear reactor operator on two Fast-Attack submarines. He was a senior power plant operator at UW-Madison and UW-Madison Hospital. While working with the Wisconsin Space Grant, Dan and Dr. Aileen Yingst founded the First Nations Launch and the Tethered Aerostat Program. Following WSGC, Dan supported the Montana Space Grant in ensuring the Salish Kootenai Tribal College was successful and BisonSat was launched on October 8, 2015. He then worked with U.S. Department of State to remove Native Americans from the International Traffic and Arms Regulations List.

Prior to BisonSat, Dan helped the El Paso Community College with two NanoRacks ISS Experiments and launched a payload RockOn payload on a suborbital Terrier-Orion in 2009.

Dan is a recognized Amazon Black Earth expert with NASA, NOAA, and the DOE, for which he made one ton of high CEC carbon that is being used to mitigate radiocesium-137 on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands.

Dan is currently working with NASA to waive Satellite Export Controls to First Nations People, Canada. In cooperation with many entities and institutions, the first tribal sovereignty data blockchain Jay Treaty satellite is being designed.

Dr. Ram S. Jakhu has over 40 years of experience in space law and policy and currently is a tenured Full Professor at the Institute of Air and Space Law, Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He teaches and conducts research in international space law, law of space commercialisation, space safety and security, national regulation of space activities, law of telecommunications, and public international law. In addition, he has been providing consultation to several private and governmental entities and drafting national laws and regulations in various countries.

 He is the Project Director and Co-Editor of the McGill Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS Project); Project Director and Editor-in-Chief of the McGill Encyclopedia of International Space Law, and Project Director of Project on Sustainable Development in South Asian Countries (The Role of Space Technologies, Laws and Policies).

 He served as the Director of the McGill Institute of Air and Space Law; Director of McGill Centre for Regulated Industries; Director of the Master of Space Studies Program of the International Space University; member of the Global Agenda Council on Space of the World Economic Forum; member of the Board of Directors of International Institute of Space Law (IISL); and member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

 He authored three books, over 130 articles, 70 research reports and edited 13 books, including the one that received the 2011 Book Award from the International Academy of Astronautics.

 In 2022, he received the “Excellence in Supervision and Mentorship Award” from Graduate Law Student Association of the Faculty of Law of McGill University, in 2016 the “Leonardo da Vinci Life-Long Achievement Award” from the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety and in 2007 the “Distinguished Service Award” from the IISL for significant contribution to the development of space law.

 He holds Doctor of Civil Law (Dean’s Honours List) and Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees from McGill University, Canada as well as LL.M., LL.B., and B.A. degrees from Panjab University, India.

David Kendall is Co-founder and Fellow of the Outer Space Institute; Emeritus faculty, International Space University (ISU); proud member of the Leadership Board of For All Moonkind and member of the Institute on Space Law and Ethics; member of the Board of Advisors of SEDS-Canada; elected full academician of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA); Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (2016-2018); Director General of Space Science and Space Science and Technology, Canadian Space Agency (2004-2012); Vice President and Chair of the Finance Committee of the International Astronautical Federation (2008-2012); Bureau member and Chair of the Finance Committee of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) (2000-2008); Past Chair and member of the Steering Group of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee; Past Co-Chair of a subgroup of the International Ad-Hoc Group on Earth Observations; Past Chair and Member of the Academic Council, and Director of the Space Studies Program (1999 & 2014) of the ISU. 

He is also a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002) and the C.D. Howe Award of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (2016-2017).

Dr. Soyeon Yi is South Korea’s first and only astronaut, selected out of 36,000 contestants. On April 8,2008, she launched into space on-board Soyuz TMA-12. During her 11-day mission at the International Space Station (ISS), Dr. Yi completed an aggressive number of experiments contributing to South Korea’s science textbooks and science channel television lectures. During her return to Earth on, she survived a force of nearly 16-G (versus 4-G average) upon the ballistic re-entry. Due to re-entry complications, the first to welcome her return to earth were nomads in the plains of Kazakhstan.

Dr. Yi received her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and her Ph.D. from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). In May 2014, Dr. Yi received her MBA with an emphasis on Technology and Global Leadership at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

Recently, Dr. Yi has worked with Noul Co., Ltd., developing the next-generation POC (Point-Of-Care) blood testing platform as the Managing Director, Business Development & Partnership. Dr. Yi is passionate about nurturing the next generation of STEM leaders; volunteering for non-profits as a speaker and lecturing at the University of Washington and local community colleges.

Dr. Marlène M. Losier is a legal expert in international law.  She advises private and public clients around the world on international and national laws relating to culture and space policies affected by maritime, terrestrial and beyond Earth considerations often resulting from the succession of states in the post-colonial context.  She advises on the United Nations treaty system and its auspices, counsels on bilateral and multilateral agreements and assists in developing corresponding domestic rules.  Dr. Losier is an expert in complex matters of sovereign immunity and jurisdiction, where they conflict, when they are evoked in areas beyond national jurisdiction and specifically in respect to issues relating to title and proprietary rights, including with regard to the moral and ethical arguments concerning the rights of communities of origin and private individuals.  Her academic background is in government and social anthropology and her legal basis is in international litigation, alternative disputes resolution and contractual matters.  She is Principal of Losier & González, PLLC based in Washington, D.C

Sergio Marchisio is Professor of Space Law and Emeritus of International Law at Sapienza University of Rome. Vice-President of the Italian Society for International Organization (SIOI). Chairman of the European Centre for Space Law at the European Space Agency (ECSL/ESA), General Counsel of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), and Member of the Advisory Council of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI).

He is Senior Legal Advisor of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Scientific Responsible for the research project OSL – Outer Space Law for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development, funded by ASI, and a member of the Board of Directors of ASI (2014-2018). 

He is legal Expert at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Italian delegate to the UN COPUOS, where he served as Chairman of the Legal Subcommittee (2004-2006) and Co-chair of the Expert Group D (Regulatory Regimes and Guidance for Actors in the Space Arena) of the Working Group on the Long-Term Sustainability of the Outer Space Activities (2010-2018).

Since 2007, he has served as Italian delegate to the Council of the European Union for the Negotiation of the International Code of Conduct on Outer Space Activities (ICoC). and Chair of the multilateral negotiations on the ICoC held at the United Nations in New York, July 2015.

He is a member of the Intergovernmental Committee entrusted to negotiate the UNIDROIT Space Assets Protocol to the Cape Town Convention (2003-2012) and Chair of the Committee of the Whole of the 2012 Berlin Diplomatic Conference, which adopted the Protocol. Since 2013, he has been Correspondent for Italy to the UNIDROIT.

Additionally, he is member of the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Outer Space Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures (TCBMs, UNGA Resolution 65/68) (2011-2013) and of the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Practical Measures for the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS, UNGA Resolution 72/250, 2018-2019). He is member of the Specialized Panel of the Permanent Court of Arbitration pursuant to the Optional Rules on Disputes relating to Outer Space Activities.

In 2011, Sergo Marchisio was awarded the Social Sciences Award from the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and, in 2015, Distinguished Service Award from the International Institute of Space Law (IISL).