People
We are advancing society through exploration
We strive to embrace diversity in all its forms, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, age, ability, veteran status, and neurotype. We believe achieving greater diversity in our faculty, staff, and partners will advance our mission to create positive space futures.
Our team is built on character, rooted in deliberation, and energized through action. Respect, curiosity, and inclusivity drive our culture and the space futures we seek to create.
Work with us!
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Michael Crow
President & Professor
An academic leader and educator, science and technology policy scholar, he is guiding the transformation of ASU into one of the nation’s leading public metropolitan research universities
Linda Elkins-Tanton
Vice President
Lindy Elkins-Tanton is the vice president of the Interplanetary Initiative at ASU and Principal Investigator of the NASA Psyche mission. She received her doctorate from MIT in 2002.
Expertise Areas:
Planetary Sciences, Higher and Postsecondary Education
Jessica Rousset
Director
Expertise Areas:
Biotechnology, Intellectual Property, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Business Process Management, Strategic Planning, Business Model Innovation, Leadership, Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Biomedical Engineering, Technological Entrepreneurship and Management
Joe DuBois
Sr. Engineer, Interplanetary Laboratory
Joe DuBois (jdubois2@asu.edu) has 30 years of experience in small satellite design and development. Starting in 1990, he helped grow the startup Spectrum Astro for 10 years and 5 spacecraft developments. His work at Spectrum Astro and later Honeywell earned him 7 patents for spacecraft architecture and components. In 2017, DuBois joined ASU as a lead in the development of the LunaH-Map cubesat. He is now at the ASU Interplanetary Initiative managing the Interplanetary Laboratory.
Evgenya Shkolnik
Associate Director
Evgenya Shkolnik is a professor of
astrophysics at the School of Earth
and Space Exploration at Arizona State
University. She is an expert on stars,
exoplanets, and the potential habitability
of exoplanetary systems.
Expertise Areas:
Astrophysics, Astronomy
Rejane Cantoni
Artist
Rejane Cantoni is an artist based in São Paulo, Brazil. She studied communication, semiotics, visualization of information systems, and kinematic interfaces in both São Paulo, Brazil, and Geneva, Switzerland. She holds multiple graduate degrees and has taught mathematics, physics, and technology at the Catholic University of São Paulo.
Justin Chandler
VP of Government Relations and Strategic Partnerships,ThinkOrbital
Justin is the VP of Government Relations and Strategic Partnerships at ThinkOrbital. With an impressive 21-year career in the Department of the Air Force, Justin retired as a Colonel and was instrumental in the standup of the US Space Force. His background as a combat pilot and extensive experience in commercial space launch and operations make him a valuable asset to our advisory board.
Tracy Drain
Tracy is a Flight Systems Engineer working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Over her 20-year career, she has helped to develop, test and operate a variety of robotic spacecraft to explore our Solar System. A life-long learner, she loves encouraging people of all ages to nurture their curiosity and to explore the wonders that science and technology make available to us.
Tanja Masson-Zwaan
University of Leiden, The Netherlands
Tanja is President Emerita of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL). She advises the Dutch Government on space law issues and co-founded the Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group. She served on various Boards, including the European Centre for Space Law, Women in Aerospace-Europe, the Netherlands Space Society and Secure World Foundation.
Amy Salzhauer
Founder and Managing Partner at Good Growth Capital
Amy is the Founder and Managing Partner at Good Growth Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund with an exceptional track record of funding and founding early-stage, transformative science companies. Her team has the operating experience and technical expertise to assess, launch, and grow deep technology companies and science-based businesses.
Jessy Kate Schingler
Open Lunar Foundation
Jessy-Kate is a founding board member and chief policy analyst at the Open Lunar Foundation, focused on policy and institution design for near term lunar activity. She is also an affiliate at Harvard’s Berman Klein Center for Internet and Society and French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), looking at the application of new institutional designs to pressing global challenges here on Earth.
John Thurmond
Independent
John, now retired, previously served as the Principal Advisor for Emerging Technology for Hess and has spent more than twenty years in the energy industry working across the value chain with a focus on innovation. He holds a PhD in Geoscience from the University of Texas at Dallas, and currently resides in Houston, TX.
Scott Webster
Chairman of the Board of Telesat Government Solutions
Scott is a chairman of Telesat Government Solutions–Telesat’s US subsidiary focussed on the successful rollout of Lightspeed, Telesat’s LEO-satellite-based global broadband communications services….distinguished by unique, low-latency and inherently secure laser crosslinks
The Interplanetary Scholars represent a broad range of educators, scholars, thinkers, and researchers across and outside of ASU who aspire to create an inclusive and sustainable interplanetary future, and have ideas on how to get there.
