Dr. Robert Zubrin is President of the Mars Society. In 1996 he founded Pioneer Astronautics, an aerospace R&D company which he led for 27 years until selling it in 2023. He holds a M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Washington. He is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society and former Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Space Society.

Zubrin is the author of 20 patents and over 200 published papers in the field of space exploration and technology. Dr. Zubrin authored twelve books, including "The Case for Mars: How We Shall Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must," (1996) “Merchants of Despair,”(2012) “The Case for Space,”(2019) “The Case for Nukes,”(2023) and “The New World on Mars.” (2024).

As President of Pioneer Astronautics, Dr. Zubrin led over seventy research and development projects in areas including spacecraft and launch vehicle propulsion systems, in-situ resource utilization technology, EVA, and robotic exploration systems. As leader of the Mars Society he led the construction of two Mars analog research stations – one in the Canadian high Arctic in 2000 and the other in Utah in 2001 - and has since overseen over 290 simulated Mars exploration missions at those stations. Prior to founding Pioneer Astronautics, he worked as a Senior Engineer at Lockheed Martin, in thermonuclear fusion research, nuclear power plant safety, and as a high school science teacher.

Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, known as “Dr. Z” to the community, is a Swiss-American astrophysicist and team builder, who completed his PhD at the University of Berne in 1996. In that same year, he left for the US and joined the University of Michigan as a research associate, where, in 2008, he was made Professor of Space Science and Aerospace Engineering. While at Michigan, Dr Zurbuchen founded the largest Entrepreneurship programme at American Universities, the Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship. Later, from 2016 to 2022, Dr. Zurbuchen was the longest continually serving Head of Science at NASA, the leading program worldwide for doing science in and from space. During this time, he drove all aspects of leadership in space science, heading 120+ missions, launching 37, and starting 54. His achievements include, but are not limited to, bringing the international James Webb Telescope to launch, overseeing two Mars landings - the Perseverance rover and the first controlled flight away from the Earth with the Ingenuity helicopter - and developing the Parker Solar Probe, a mission to touch the Sun. Dr. Zurbuchen is a member of the international Academy of Astronautics. Since mid-2023, Thomas Zurbuchen is leading ETH Zurich Space, where he is fostering startups, supporting science and building the first space master’s programme in Switzerland, which accepted its first students in 2024. He is also active as a speaker, consultant and board member.

Jeff Greason is a commercial space innovator with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of the commercial space transportation industry. He is chief technologist of Electric Sky, where he has invented technologies for the transmission of wireless power to aircraft and spacecraft and its use for propulsion and other purposes. Through work with the Tau Zero Foundation and Interstellar Research Group, he has developed a number of technologies for advanced space propulsion applicable to interstellar flight and solar system exploration.

Jeff was a founder of XCOR Aerospace and served as its CEO from 1999 to early 2015. There, he led the development of many different reusable rocket engines and two rocket-powered piloted aircraft, demonstrating $900/flight operating cost and an operational tempo of seven flights in one day, with 66 total flights. Prior to XCOR, he was the team lead at Rotary Rocket for engine development, and an engineering manager in computer processor development and semiconductor technology at Intel.

Jeff has been active in the U.S. regulatory regime for commercial space, through work with FAA/AST. He helped shape the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 and the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015. He co-founded the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and served as a director for many years.  Jeff was a member of the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee (Augustine Committee) in 2009.  He has given a number of speeches on strategies for expanding human presence out in to the Solar System and beyond.

Jeff is an Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a Governor of the National Space Society and a recipient of an Intel Achievement Award, the company’s highest recognition. He was named a Time magazine Inventor of the Year in 2002 and holds 30 U.S. patents.

Michael Pawlyn is an architect, writer and public speaker. He has been described as an expert in regenerative design and biomimicry. He established his firm Exploration Architecture in 2007 to focus on high performance buildings and solutions for the circular economy. The company has developed a ground-breaking office project, an ultra-low energy data centre, a zero waste textiles factory and progressive solutions for green cities. Michael Pawlyn jointly initiated the widely acclaimed Sahara Forest Project; the latest version of which was opened by the King of Jordan in 2017.

• Prior to setting up Exploration, Michael Pawlyn worked with Grimshaw for ten years and was central to the team that designed the Eden Project. He is regularly booked as a keynote speaker on innovation and his TED talk has had over 2 million views.

• He has written two books - Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency (co-authored with Sarah Ichioka) and Biomimicry in Architecture – both of which have been the respective publisher’s best-selling title. In 2019 he jointly initiated ‘Architects Declare a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency’ – a global call to action which has spread to 28 countries with over 7,000 firms signed up.

• He has delivered a numbered of high profile lectures including as part of the following programmes: Cambridge University Darwin College Lecture Series, The Genius of Nature Series at the Natural History Museum of Utah, The CE100 Annual Summit organised by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

• He has been featured in The Financial Times, National Geographic, The Economist, Wired and The Guardian as well as in a large number of design magazines. His television and radio appearances include ‘Animal Einsteins’ on BBC television and a number of programmes on BBC Radio 4.

Dr. Ariel Ekblaw is the founder and CEO of Aurelia Institute and GP for Aurelia Foundry Fund, where she strives to bring humanity’s space exploration future to life. Through space architecture R&D, education and outreach, and investments in new space start-ups, she is building an ecosystem to expand humanity’s horizons, democratize access to opportunities in low Earth orbit, and scale up life in space. Ariel was the founding Director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative, a team of 50+ students, faculty, and staff building and flying advanced technology for space exploration. Ariel graduated with a B.S. in Physics, Mathematics, and Philosophy from Yale University and designed a novel space architecture habitat for her MIT PhD in autonomously self-assembling space structures. Her research work and the labs she leads build towards future habitats and space stations in orbit around the Earth, Moon, and Mars. Ariel is the author/editor of Into the Anthropocosmos: A Whole Space Catalog from the MIT Space Exploration Initiative (MIT Press 2021), serves on the NASA Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) Executive Committee and XPRIZE Global Visioneering Committee, and holds an appointment as a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center. Ariel’s work has been featured in WIRED, Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, CNN, NPR, numerous academic papers, top tech podcasts, and more.

• Adriana has a background in theoretical physics, her award-winning PhD and postdoctoral

• work focused on quantum effects in biology and the origins of the building blocks of life in

• space. Adriana is currently a researcher at Stellenbosch University and the National Institute

• of Theoretical and Computational Sciences, both in South Africa, and also an expert at the

• Singularity University in California.

• In 2019, she left her position as Head of Innovation for Africa with SAP to found Proudly

• Human. She has visited Antarctica, Norway, deserts in the Middle East and Africa, the

• Aquarius Reef Base undersea habitat and submarine naval bases on location scouts for

• Proudly Human’s Off-World Project. The Project, also to be streamed globally as a

• documentary series, is a range of off-grid habitation experiments in the most extreme

• environments on the planet, in preparation for life on the Moon, Mars and beyond, as well

• as a resilient future here on Earth.

• Since 2017, Adriana is a Director at the Foundation for Space Development Africa, and also

• the chief scientist for the Foundation’s Africa2Moon Project, currently shortlisted for launch

• to the lunar south pole. Africa2Moon will be Africa’s first Moon mission, and potentially the

• world’s first lunar radio telescope, performing new science not possible from Earth. She is

• also a member of the committee on Space Resources of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy

• Anticipator.

• In 2025, her book “Out of this world, and into the next” detailing the vision of humanity’s

• journey into the stars will be published in China, and internationally with Profile Books. In

• the meantime, she is a visiting scientist at Shenzhen Nanshan Huitong School in China.

Abby Harrison is a Graduate Research Fellow at Queen’s University studying Arctic region biogeochemistry as a member of the Facility for Biogeochemical Research on Environmental Change and the Cryosphere(FaBRECC) lab. Previously she has conducted immunology/neuroscience research at Harvard Medical School, astrobiology research at the Space Life Sciences Labs, machine learning research at Wellesley College, and limnology research at Lake Baikal, Siberia. Abby holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Wellesley College. Abby has had a passion for space exploration her entire life and is working towards becoming a NASA astronaut. At 15 years old, Abby served as the Earth Liaison for European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, helping to share his experiences living and working in space with people on Earth. She then went on to found and lead The Mars Generation Non-profit for 7 years. Under her leadership, this organization reached tens of millions of people with digital science content, engaged more than 2,000 students in a student leadership development program, secured hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide hands-on STEM experiences for young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and aided teachers around the world in developing and delivering space and science curriculum in grade school classrooms. In 2019, Abby was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for her innovative education advocacy work with The Mars Generation. Abby is the author of Dream Big: How to Reach for Your Stars, a book that guides young people in developing the skills necessary to achieve their dreams. Recently Abby was a member of the teaching team for the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, where she mentored undergraduate students in designing research to fly on the International Space Station. Abby is a prolific public speaker and staunch advocate for the future of space exploration and STEM education. She has delivered hundreds of presentations on these subjects, ranging from grade school audiences to the US House of Representatives. In 2024, Abby received the prestigious commercial space industry Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship and worked as an engineering intern at the commercial space company Voyager Space, during which she contributed to testing the Sierra Space Dream Chaser spaceplane, improving laser communications systems for the International Space Station, and the development of the Starlab commercial space station.

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Abby has trained as a pilot, Rescue SCUBA Diver, and Emergency Medical Technician and is always searching for her next adventure. Abby has studied Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Spanish and is passionate about all types of collaboration in the space industry, including international and private/public sectors. In her free time, she creates educational videos and content on social media to excite more people about space and science. You can join Abby on her journey to become an astronaut by following her at @astronautabbyofficial.

• Lina Khalifeh is the Founder and CEO of SheFighter, The First Self-Defense studio for women only started in Jordan, The Middle East, and expanded to 35 countries globally.
• The studio was founded in 2012 and has trained more than 25 thousand women and certified 700+ female Instructors all over the globe.
• Lina Khalifeh has many great achievements,
• - President Barack Obama mentioned her in his speech at the White house in 2015, and named her "Leader of Social Change".
• - Lina was awarded the "Stuart Scott Humanitarian ENSPIRE award", presented by ESPN and UFC 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
• - She was awarded “The Economic Empowerment Leadership award”, by Hillary Clinton and Vital Voices in Washington D.C. in 2018.
• - She was invited to speak at the World Economic Forum 2019 in Davos, Switzerland.
• - She published her book “SheFighter: From Trouble Maker to Global Change Maker”
• SheFighter Website: www.shefighter.com

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