Josef Aschbacher is Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), headquartered in Paris, France, a role he assumed in March 2021.

Born in Austria, he studied at the University of Innsbruck, graduating with a Master’s degree and a PhD in natural sciences.

As Director General of ESA, Mr Aschbacher is responsible for the definition, implementation and development of Europe’s space infrastructure and activities. He is responsible for an annual budget of 7 billion euros and a workforce of 5,500 distributed across several establishments, principally in Europe.

Upon becoming Director General of ESA, Mr Aschbacher published a new strategy for space in Europe, called ESA Agenda 2025, aimed at accelerating significantly the use of space in Europe through major new initiatives and programmes.

From 2016–2021 Mr Aschbacher was ESA Director for Earth Observation Programmes and Head of ESA’s ESRIN establishment in Frascati, Italy. He assumed various functions within ESA from 2001 onwards. Previously, he worked at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and he was stationed as ESA Representative in South-East Asia.

Jean-François Clervoy, successively active CNES, ESA and NASA astronaut for 33 years, ranks as reserve brigadier general.  Born in 1958, JFC graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1981, from SupAero college of Aeronautics in 1983 and from Test flying school in 1987. He flew on three missions aboard the space shuttle: in 1994 to study the atmosphere, in 1997 to resupply the Russian space station Mir, and in 1999 to repair the Hubble space telescope. Then JFC worked as senior advisor for the ESA human space flight programs and as chairman-CEO of Novespace which organizes weightlessness parabolic flights aboard the Airbus A310 AirZeroG. Now retired from the astronaut corps, he continues to work as AirZeroG Founder and ambassador, author, inventor and professional speaker. He is member of several organizations for the promotion of space exploration and for the protection of planet Earth.

Mr. Dietmar Grebner studied Mechanical/Vehicle Engineering at the Munich University of Applied Science. He was a design engineer at Sauber Motorsport AG Formula 1 and responsible for design and development of gearbox and suspension components. Onwards he joined Modell- and Formenbau Blasius Gerg GmbH as a head of composite department at. Before he found his company Peak Technology GmbH he worked as a head of unit Motorsport and special projects at Fischer Ski GmBH. The development and production of composite high pressure tanks and structure for Formula 1 and the space industry belong to core components of the company. Since 2022 he has been serving as Executive Committee President of Austrospace. Austrospace is an association of 20 successful Austrian companies and institutions that are engaged in space applications and research.

Education

• 2012: PhD in the field of Exploration Astrobiology, University of Innsbruck, Austria
• 2004: MSc in Astronomy, University of Innsbruck
• 1996-1998: International Space University (Space Studies Program (SSP)’96 TU Vienna, SSP’97 NASA/JSC, Texas; SSP’99 NASA/LRC, Ohio, SSP‘11 TU Graz)
• Certified analog astronaut for the Mars Desert Research Station, Utah and the Austrian Space Forum; currently logging 117 hrs of Extra-Vehicular Activity (“spacewalk”) simulation, 30min cumulative zero-g flight experience
• Medical education: Certified paramedic (NFS-NKI), 30years of EMS field experience, instructor for first aid, EMT’s and paramedics; specialized trainings in disaster management & emergency medicine 

Professional experience

• 1996: Assistant project manager at the Austrian Society for Aerospace Medicine
• 1997-2003: Various astronomical and astronautical research sojourns in Italy, Chile, France and US.
• 2001-2005: Co-founder and manager for the marketing company “Panthera.cc”
• 2004: Flight Crew, 37th ESA Professional Parabolic Flight Campaign
• 2010-2018: Lecturer at the University of Innsbruck, guest lecturer at various other universities
• Since 2012: Employed at the Austrian Space Forum, Spacesuit Project management and OeWF operations (various project in the field of analog missions, education & outreach, science).

Academic work

• Research Interest Score: 315
• h-Index: 11, i10 score: 13
• Lecturer at the Univ. of Innsbruck, Univ. of Klagenfurt, FH Steyr, TU Munich
• Various contributions as journal reviewer, space project consultancies and review boards for EC projects

Major projects

• PolAres Program Officer (OeWF Mars analogue research projects), 2007-now, including the development of a research-grade spacesuit simulator, AMADEE program coordinator 2018-2028
• Project manager analog missions for Mars Analogue Research Missions, including at Rio Tinto/Spain (2011), the Dachstein ice caves (Austria, 2012) and the Northern Sahara of Morocco (2013), Kaunertal Glacier (Austria, 2015), Oman (2018, 25-nation mission AMADEE-18), Israel 2021

Selected Memberships

• Global Expert Group on Sustainable Lunar Activities (MVA/GEGSLA), since 2021
• European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA), Full Member since 2011, Deutsche Astrobiologische Gesellschaft, Germany, since 2018
• Association of Mars Explorers, Full Member (since 2012),
• Internat. Sci. Committee of the Spanish Planetology and Astrobiology Network (since 2014)
• Various awards on the field of science communication and for research activities

Christophe Lasseur is Head of MELiSSA project at European Space Agency.
PhD in bioengineering from University of Compiegne (France), Christophe Lasseur joined first MATRA space Branch (today Airbus), where he worked on the control of higher plant chamber for space missions. Later on, he became the project manager of the echograph Anthrorack that flew with success on NASA Shuttle D2 mission. In 1990, he joined ESA for a research fellow position devoted to the precursor of the MELiSSA pilot plant. In 1992, he became MELiSSA project manager, and in 1998 the coordinator of ESA R&D in the life support domain. From 2000 to 2010, he chaired, with NASA HQ,  the International Life Support working Group, which involved NASA, JAXA, CSA, RSA, and ESA. He currently acts as well as European representative to the ISS Medical board for microbiology, and is adviser for several European Union activities. Since 2012 he chairs  Life Support Sessions (F4) of COSPAR. He regularly teaches in several European engineering schools ( e.g. KTH, EPFL, Agro-Paris). In March 2017, he received a Doctor Honoris Causa from Antwerpen University (Belgium), he was invited speaker to the 2018 World Government Summit in Dubai.

Advenit Makaya is an Advanced Manufacturing Engineer at the European Space Research and Technology Centre of the European Space Agency. He supports the development of advanced materials and processes for space applications and provides Materials and Processes support to ESA missions. In this context, Advenit is coordinating the Out-of-Earth Manufacturing initiative, aiming to foster the development of technologies for on-orbit and on-planet manufacturing. Advenit is also supporting the definition and implementation of the ESA Space Resources strategy. This includes the coordination of technology development activities on In-Situ Resource Utilisation for construction of infrastructure and hardware, for future exploration missions to the Moon and Mars. 
Advenit previously worked  as a Lifing Technologist for Rolls-Royce plc in the U.K., performing structural analysis and lifing assessments of critical parts for large civil aircraft engines. 
Prior to this industrial experience, he conducted research activities on advanced metallic materials, in academic and national institute laboratories in Sweden and Japan. 
He holds a PhD and an MSc in Materials Processing from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, as well as an Engineering MSc degree from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, in France.
 

Piero Messina, born in 1964 in Florence, Italy, is a senior policy, strategy and management support officer in the ESA Director General’s Cabinet. Among his duties he is in charge of relations with some Member States and has been working on several strategic cross-cutting projects such as space resources (e.g. space mining, in-orbit economy), the Moon Village vision as well as on the future of Europe’s role on space exploration. . 

Piero has been working at the European Space Agency for over 30 years in several positions and in different ESA Centres (ESOC, Germany, ESTEC, The Netherlands and HQ in Paris). Before holding the present position he was, for several years, chief of staff  / advisor to successive ESA Directors of human spaceflight and space exploration. Previously he was part of the managing team of the Aurora European Exploration Programme and the Secretary of its Board of participating Member States.

Holding an advanced degree in International Economic Relations (Political Science) from the University of Florence, Piero graduated from the 4^th Master in Space Studies (1998-1999) from the International Space Universities (Strasbourg) where he had Adjunct Faculty position. In 2004 he was Adelaide SSP TP Co-Chair for “Lunares”. He holds a Master degree in History and Sociology of Science and Technology from the École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales (EHESS). He is an auditeur of the French Institut des Hautes Études de  Defense Nationale (IHEDN) in Paris and has a master degree in Change psychology from UniLink in Rome.

Maria Antonietta got a Degree in Nuclear Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino. In 1988 she attended the International Space University (M.I.T., Boston, USA) and became Faculty Member. She is currently member of the ISU Academic Council.

She works at Thales Alenia Space as Director for Space Economy Exploration and International Network.

Maria Antonietta is involved in different activities promoting the development of young professionals in the space industry. 

She is author of several publications, papers, and reports, and Acta Astronautica Co-Editor.

Member of the Académie de l’Air et de l’Espace and of the International Academy of Astronautics, and former IAF Bureau Vice President. She is President of Explore Mars Europe. Awarded “Woman of Excellence 2010” by AIDDA and “Stella al Merito del Lavoro” by the Italian Republic President.

Board of Director member of Women in Aerospace–Europe, International Lunar Observatory Association, World Space Week Association.

Georgi Petrov is a practicing architect, structural engineer and space architect. He is a Senior Associate Principal in the structures group at the New York office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, where he works on highrises and long span structures around the world.  He is the leader of SOM’s space architecture endeavors.  He is an adjunct professor at NYU and MIT where he teaches Design of Tall Buildings and the vice-chair of the AIAA’s Space Architecture Technical Committee.

Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu works as an expert within the Romanian Association for Space Technology and Industry – ROMSPACE and as a member of the Board of the Romanian Space Agency.

In May 1981 Prunariu accomplished an eight-day space flight on board Soyuz-40 spacecraft and Saliut-6 space station.

Prunariu is one of the founding members and former president of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), was also the President of the Romanian Space Agency (1998-2004), the Ambassador of Romania to the Russian Federation (since 2004), the chair of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) (2010-2012), representative of Romania in the International Relations Committee of the European Space Agency (ESA), Member of the Trustees Board of the International Astronautical Academy, the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Asteroid Foundation, registered in Luxembourg, a special adviser to the “Moon Village Association” (MVA), registered in Vienna, observer member of UN COPUOS, and chair of the Global Experts Group on Sustainable Lunar Activities (GEGSLA), organized by MVA.

Prunariu is a co-author of several books regarding space technology and space flight and has presented/published numerous scientific papers. He earned a degree in aerospace engineering from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest and a Ph.D. in the field of space flight dynamics. Prunariu is also a Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy.

Prunariu is an Honorary Citizen of several cities and Doctor Honoris Causa of several higher education institutions from Romania, Republic of Moldova, and USA.

An asteroid was named with his name, the asteroid “10707 Prunariu”.

Brent Sherwood is a space architect with 35 years of professional experience in the space industry.
He is Senior Vice President, Advanced Development Programs, for Blue Origin. ADP develops in-space vehicles and systems for Earth orbit, cislunar space, and the Moon.
Brent was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 14 years, leading concept and proposal methodology and planetary mission formulation. Before that, he was at Boeing for 17 years, leading concept engineering for human planetary exploration, manufacturing engineering for space station modules, and program development for commercial and space science projects.
Brent was educated at Yale and the University of Maryland. He has advanced degrees in both architecture and aerospace engineering. He is an Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and 2020 recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers Columbia Medal. He has published over 50 papers on the exploration, development, and settlement of space, and edited the book Out of This World: The New Field of Space Architecture.
 

Dr. Peter Weiss: Peter has more than 2O years of experience in the management of industrial and research projects in the maritime and space sector. He is the Founder and President of SPARTAN SPACE a French Start-Up company that develops habitation systems for extreme environments. He worked at the DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, on a motor drive of a lightweight robot arm, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, USA, on the development of artificial muscles for self-transforming robotic planetary explorers, at Cybernetix in Marseille, France, as Project Manager for European Commission and industrial projects, at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on a robotic microgravity sampling device for the PHOBOS-GRUNT mission and for over ten years as Director of the Space Department and Company Board member of COMEX in Marseille, France. In the frame of this activity he was in charge of several developments on space and underwater systems.

Melodie Yashar is a space architect, technologist, and researcher. She is the VP of Building Design & Performance at ICON, a construction technologies company focused on large scale additive manufacturing for Earth and in space. Melodie oversees the architectural direction of ICON’s built work as well as the performance of ICON’s building systems to deliver optimally-performing structures that shift the paradigm of homebuilding on Earth and beyond. Collaborating across technology and construction teams, her department supports the design and construction of dignified and resilient terrestrial housing solutions in addition to supporting the development of ICON’s off-world construction systems. 

Melodie teaches undergraduate and graduate design studios at Art Center College of Design. In previous roles Melodie was a Senior Research Associate with the Human Systems Integration Division at NASA Ames via San Jose State University Research Foundation (SJSURF), a co-founder of Space Exploration Architecture (SEArch+), a research group developing human-supporting designs for space exploration, as well as a Professor within the Architecture department of Pratt Institute. Melodie obtained a Master of Architecture from Columbia University and a Master of Human-Computer Interaction with an emphasis in Robotics from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. She geeks out on new material & fabrication technologies.

Helmut Aigner studied business administration in Graz and was subsequently an assistant at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration for 5 years. For more than 20 years he has been a lecturer in the field of MBA/Corporate Finance at the Danube University Krems and at the TU Wien.

In practice, Dr. Aigner is involved in projects with a focus on Mergers & Acquisitions, Strategic Planning, Controlling, Accounting, Financial Management, Management Information Systems, Feasibility Studies, Company Analysis, and Business Valuation.

Tina C. Ambos is Professor of International Management and the Director of the i2i Hub for Intrapreneurship and Innovation at the University of Geneva.

Between 2013 - 2015 she was professor of strategy at the University of Sussex and  from 2010 to 2013 she held the chair of the Department of International Management at Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria). Prior to that she held  positions at WU Vienna, the University of Edinburgh and London Business School.

Prof. Ambos’ research and teaching interests include knowledge management, innovation and strategic management of internationally dispersed organizations. During her career she has worked with several multinational corporations, entrepreneurial technology firms, and international organizations on research and consulting projects.

After his business administration vocational training in the banking sector and his studies in economics at the University of Heidelberg, Cornelius Geiger discovered business games and simulations. In 2000, he began to develop and conduct business games himself. Initially, the topics were mainly business administration, but the simulations became more and more multifaceted over time.

Today, Cornelius Geiger conducts such business games together with companies and universities both in German-speaking countries and internationally. True to his motto: "You don't have to be serious to deal with "serious" topics!" the simulations create a positive atmosphere in which learning is fun. In this way, one can gain valuable practical experience in a playful way and without risks.

Roland Gutmann is the company founder of accounting for funding e. U..

From 2007-2011 he was Head of Business Administration and Corporate Controlling at the Austrian Institute of Technology and responsible, among other things, for the ongoing accounting of funding projects and the submission of method certification for EU funding projects.

Prior to that he worked for Österreichische Post AG as Head of Cost Accounting (1998-2007) and and from 1995 to 1998 Head of Business Administration at Lauda Air AG.

He is a certified project manager according to IPMA Level C and undertakes teaching / lecturing activities in the field of accounting and management control (cost accounting) as well as controlling.

Karl-Heinz Leitner is Senior Scientist at the Center for Innovation Systems & Policy at the Austrian Institute of Technology and Professor for Innovation Management at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz. His work focuses on strategy development, innovation management, entrepreneurship and research policy. Karl-Heinz Leitner has conducted numerous research and consulting projects for companies, ministries, interest groups and the European Union.

Klaus Nordhausen is a University Lecturer in Statistics at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

From 2017-2019 he used to be Assistant Professor at the Institut für Stochastik und Wirtschaftsmathematik and from 2019 to 2021 Associate Professor for Computational Statistics at the TU Wien.

His main research interests are supervised and unsupervised dimension reduction, blind source separation, independent components analysis, robust and nonparametric methods and computational statistics.

Ferry Stocker studied Commercial Science at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, where he subsequently earned a doctorate in Economics. From 1987 to 1997, he was an assistant at the Institute for Economic Theory and Policy at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.

From 1994 to 2016, he was Head of Department for Economics at the FH Wiener Neustadt.

His main research interests are European Integration, in particular European Monetary Integration Applied Microeconomics ('Managerial Economics') and Didactics of Economics.

Ferry Stocker is a lecturer in economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration of the TU Wien and at the Danube University Krems.

Wolfgang H. Güttel is University Professor of Human Resources and Management at the Institute of Management Sciences and Dean of the Academy for Continuing Education (ACE) at the TU Wien. His research is dedicated to the topics Leadership, Strategy & Change Management.

From 2009 to 2020 he was head of the Institute for Leadership and Change Management at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz and also Dean and Co-Managing Director of the LIMAK Austrian Business School at JKU between 2011 and 2015. He previously worked at the Universities of Kassel, Hamburg, Liverpool and Padua as well as at WU Vienna. Prior to his academic career he worked as a management consultant at Daimler-Benz AG, Diebold Management Consulting and has since been the owner of Güttel Management Consulting, Training & Research.

Yanis Hamdali is a research associate at the Chair of International Management at the European University Viadrina. His research interests lie in the role of time in organizations. He primarily researches the timing of innovations and the construction of futures in organizations. Yanis Hamdali completed his Master's degree M.Sc. in International Business Administration at the European University Viadrina and Tartu University, Estonia. His research has received awards including the Best Ph.D. Paper Award from the Strategy Practice Interest Group and the Innovation Award from the Mayor of Frankfurt.
Prior to his academic career, Hamdali worked in digital transformation roles at Bayer and was involved in two successful startups. He still advises startups on strategic growth issues and teaches at various universities in Germany with a focus on innovation management and international management.

Astrid Kleinhanns-Rollé is a university assistant (postdoc) at the Leadership & Strategy Research Group at the Institute of Management Science at the TU Wien. As Managing Director, she co-founded the WU Executive Academy at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in 2004 and led the business school over 16 years to become an internationally recognized provider of management and leadership development. Prior to that, she worked as a management consultant for the Boston Consulting Group.

Astrid Kleinhanns-Rollé spent academic research periods at Harvard University (Program On Negotiation), MIT Sloan School of Management (Leaders for Manufacturing Program) and the National University of Singapore (Center of Best Practices). Her teaching and research activities include Online Education & Learning, Leadership Development, and Virtual Teams. She received her PhD in Economics from Johannes Kepler University Linz in cooperation with MIT Sloan School of Management.

Sabine Köszegi has been a professor at the Institute for Management Sciences, öffnet eine externe URL in einem neuen Fenster at TU Wien since 2009, where she heads the Department of Labor Science and Organization. She studied business administration at WU Wien and the University of Illinois (USA) and received her PhD in social and economic sciences from the University of Vienna.

She heads the interdisciplinary Doctoral College (DC) on Trust in Robots – Trusting Robots, öffnet eine externe URL in einem neuen Fenster and is academic director oft he MBA program Innovation, Digitalization, and Entrepreneurship.

Her research focuses on Social Robotics, New World of Work and Organization and Gender Studies. She is currently working on new information and communication technologies (digitization and robotics) and managing conflicts within and between organizations.

As a member of the High-Level Expert Group on AI of the European Commission, öffnet eine externe URL in einem neuen Fenster and Chair of the Austrian Council of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, öffnet eine externe URL in einem neuen Fenster Prof. Köszegi is represented on renowned committees.