Meet the SSP19 Team
Mr. Juan De Dalmau ISU President Juan is a graduate of ISU’s SSP Program in 1989, when he benefited from a joint scholarship of CNES and ESA. Last March, Juan was elected as ISU’s 6th President, and has succeed Walter Peeters in September 2018. Full Biography
Dr. Omar Hatamleh ISU SSP Director Omar is the Director of the SSP at ISU. Prior to assuming his new assignment, Omar was the Chief Innovation Officer, Engineering at NASA Johnson Space Center responsible for empowering the organization creative thinking and develop capacity to innovate. Full Biography
Arif Göktuğ Karacalıoğlu ISU SSP Academic Coordinator During his secondary school years, everyone was thinking that Göktuğ (a.k.a. G2) will excel in literature and become a writer. But nope, he had surprised them all by picking “science” as his primary discipline Full Biography
Alexandra Ryan ISU SSP Academic Coordinator I graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Monash, Australia, and in 2018 completed the Graduate Certificate in Space Studies from the University of South Australia. Full Biography
Sébastien Bessat ISU SSP Logistics Coordinator Sébastien is an IT professional with skills in databases management and web development, holding a DUT in Computer Sciences. IT support was his main assignment in different positions for DARTY, Paris-Bercy, and Alcoa, St Cosme, France. Full Biography
Géraldine Moser ISU Head of Business Development Unit Ms Geraldine Moser is a French national who worked successfully in different countries. In profit and not-for-profit organisations of different sizes, mainly in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, primarily in marketing. Full Biography
Joel Herrmann ISU IT Services Manager I have a background in software development but spent all my professional carrier as a systems administrator and in user support. Full Biography
Muriel Riester ISU Library Manager Muriel has worked with the International Space University since July 1995. Muriel is the librarian at ISU central campus and is in charge for the library administration, collection development, systems and services, library website, database management & remote access. Full Biography
SSP19 Academic Team
Dr. Su-Yin Tan Core Co-Chair Dr. Su-Yin Tan is a Senior Lecturer in the Geomatics Program, Teaching Fellow of the Faculty of Environment, and Director of the Applied Geomatics Research Laboratory at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Full Biography
François Spiero Core Co-Chair Francois Spiero studied science and engineering in France and in the USA, and notably at ISU (SSP'89). After receiving his Ph.D. in Space Studies in 1990, he went to ESTEC and worked there in several fields, particularly in planetary exploration and Earth observation. Full Biography
Co-Chair
Dr. Taiwo Temojula Space Applications Co-Chair I am a development inspired Nigerian, born in the city of Lagos, western Nigeria. I was trained as an Electrical/Electronics Engineer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria and worked as a system Engineer with the National Space Research and Development Agency, Nigeria for 10years. Full Biography
Co-Chair
Bill Cowley Space Applications Co-Chair Bill Cowley worked at the University of South Australia for over 30 years, mainly in the Institute for Telecommunications Research at Mawson Lakes. He retired in September 2015 from his UniSA position of Professor of Communication Signal Processing and is currently an adjunct researcher at UniSA. Full Biography
Chair
Daniel Garcia Yarnoz Space Engineering Chair Daniel graduated in aerospace engineering from the Technical University of Madrid in 2002, after an exchange for his master thesis at TU Delft. Full Biography
Chair
Volker Damann Human Performance in Space Chair I studied medicine in Marburg, Germany and started my specialisation in nuclear medicine in 1985. In 1989 I joined the German Aerospace Research Facility (DLR) as a flight surgeon for the German D0-2 Spacelab Full Biography
Co-Chair
Samantha Coras Space Humanities Co-Chair Samantha is currently working at AECOM, in the Applied Research and Sustainable Buildings Group. She is involved in fluid dynamic, energy and carbon modeling related to sustainable design. Prior to AECOM, Samantha was working and studying with the Hypersonics Group at the University of Queensland, and was involved in the scramjet launches, HyShot III and IV, in the Australian desert. She has degrees in aerospace engineering and mathematics. In the future, she plans to become better at juggling and stand up on a surfboard for more than 1 second. Full Biography
Co-Chair
Norah Patten Space Humanities Co-Chair Dr. Norah Patten is a faculty member at the International Space University and is the founder and director of a start-up company in Ireland which specialises in using space as a means of inspiring the next generation. In 2016, Norah participated in the New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development Program, funded by Enterprise Ireland. She was a recipient of the Emerging Space Leaders Grant and a Next Generation Plenary panellist at the IAC in 2015. Through a partnership with NanoRacks, Norah coordinated ‘The Only Way is Up’ project which launched Ireland’s first student experiment to the International Space Station in 2014. She participated in the ISU SSP in 2010, has industrial experience from The Boeing Company and Bell Labs Alcatel Lucent, is a regular speaker at public events, and has featured on national television and radio. Full Biography
Chair
Prof. Walter Peeters Space Management and Business Chair Initial management positions in construction and petrochemical industry. Joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1983 in a number of project control and management functions, among others in the HERMES project in Full Biography
Associate Chair
Natalia Larea Brito Space Management and Business Associate Chair Natalia currently works as a Senior Consultant at Euroconsult based in Montreal (Canada). She manages research activities and consulting missions for government and private organizations. Full Biography
Chair
Dr. Hugh Hill Space Sciences Chair Dr. Hugh Hill is Associate Professor of Space Science at the International Space University’s (ISU’s) Central Campus in Strasbourg. His first encounter with Space was when his parents brought him to nearby Armagh Planetarium, Ireland, to hear Sir Patrick Moore (1923-2012), then Director, give a talk about the night sky. Full Biography
Chair
Tanja Masson-Zwaan Space Policy, Economics and Law Chair Tanja Masson-Zwaan is Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) at Leiden University, The Netherlands, and President Emerita of the International Institute of Space Full Biography
Co-Chair
Vasilis Zervos TP "Enhancing Industrial Space Competitiveness: Global Trends and Local Positioning" Co-Chair Vasilis Zervos is an industrial economist employed as associate professor in Economics and Policy at ISU since 2006. He holds a BA in Economics MSc in Economics Full Biography
Co-Chair
Dr. Jan Walter Schroeder TP "Enhancing Industrial Space Competitiveness: Global Trends and Local Positioning" Co-Chair Walter’s background is in Biomedical Engineering with a focus on human-machine interfaces and neuroscience. Full Biography
Chair
Dr. Geoffrey Steeves TP "Fast Transit to Mars" Chair Dr. Geoffrey Steeves is a physics professor at the University of Victoria and a faculty member at the International Space University. He is a co-founder of the StarAcers science education program and a top 16 finalist in Canada's 2008/09 astronaut recruitment campaign. Full Biography
Associate Chair
M. Jaroslaw Jaworski TP "Fast Transit to Mars" Associate Chair Jaroslaw is a System Engineer in Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements PIAP, responsible for projects and activity related to on-orbit robotics. He is also an active member of the Polish Space Full Biography
Chair
Dr. Graziella Caprarelli TP "Space for Urban Planning" Chair Dr Graziella Caprarelli obtained her PhD in Earth Sciences from the University ‘La Sapienza’ (Rome, Italy), and after two postdocs in Japan moved to Australia, where she worked as an academic at Full Biography
Chair
Dr. Jacob Cohen TP "Next Generation Space Systems: Swarms" Chair Dr. Jacob Cohen is currently the Chief Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. In this capacity, Dr. Cohen provides advice and oversight for research programs and serves as the principal Center science advisor in the administration of long term, high risk, and creative/inventive research programs. Full Biography
Associate Chair
Mr. Andrew Simon-Butler TP "Fast Transit to Mars" Associate Chair Andrew is a Canadian Barrister and Solicitor, Australian Lawyer and Australian Registered Migration Agent. Full Biography