Garik Israelian
Dr Israelian, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (Spain), is the creative director and spiritual father of the STARMUS Festival. In 1999 he led a collaboration reported in the journal Nature that found the first observational evidence that supernova explosions are responsible for the formation of black holes. His research has led […]
Diane Ackerman
Poet, essayist, and naturalist, Diane Ackerman is the author of over two dozen highly acclaimed works of nonfiction and poetry, including the bestsellers, “A Natural History of the Senses, “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” and “The Human Age” — books beloved by millions of readers all over the world. In prose so rich and evocative that one […]
Paul Franklin
Paul Franklin has been creating spectacular visual effects for over 25 years. Co-founder of Double Negative Visual Effects – one of the world’s leading digital visual effects studios – Paul is perhaps best known for his long-running collaboration with director Christopher Nolan. Paul’s work has featured in more than thirty films including “Inception” , “Interstellar”, […]
Michel Mayor
Professor Michel Mayor is an astrophysicist at Geneva University (Switzerland). Together with Didier Queloz, in 1995 he discovered the first extrasolar planet, named 51 Pegasi b, orbiting the sunlike star 51 Pegasi. Professor Mayor was awarded the Swiss Marcel Benoist Prize in recognition of his work and its significance for human life. In 2000 he was […]
Wu Ji
Wu Ji is a President of Chinese Society of Space Research, Former Director-General and Professor at National Space Science Center (NSSC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Specialist in Space Science and Exploration, IEEE Fellow, Full Member of IAA, member of Advisory Board of Luxembourg Government for Space Resources, member of the Advisory Committee of UAE […]
Chris Hadfield
Colonel Chris Hadfield is an astronaut, business leader, hi-tech entrepreneur, 5-time best-selling author and global speaker on leadership, change and managing life. Having commanded the International Space Station and directed companies, he has deep experience with best practices and tactics on guiding teams through extreme circumstances of complexity and change, while also recognizing the importance […]
John Mather
John Cromwell Mather (USA) is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) with George Smoot, measuring the cosmic microwave background radiation, showing it came from the early universe, and discovering that it has hot and cold spots that […]
Scott Hubbard
Dr. Scott Hubbard has been a leader in space exploration for almost 50 years. His career includes a National Lab, a start-up venture, NASA, and Stanford. At NASA, Dr. Hubbard is best known as Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, the first Mars Program Director (aka the “Mars Czar”), and the founder of NASA’s Astrobiology […]
Leon Stok
Leon Stok is Vice President of IBM’s Electronic Design Automation group. His team delivers world-class design and verification flows and tools being used to design the world’s largest supercomputers, and IBM Z and Power systems. Prior to this he held positions as director of EDA and executive assistant to IBM's Senior Vice President of Technology […]
George Smoot
Astrophysicist at the University of California Berkeley (USA), Professor Smoot won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on COBE with John C. Mather that led to the measurement of the anisotropy and blackbody form of the cosmic microwave background radiation. He is a senior scientist at LBL and, since 2010, a professor of […]