Space Connect Episode 5 (June 2025)

Thomas González Roberts is an incoming Assistant Professor of International Affairs and Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

He also currently serves as the International Telecommunication Union’s first Academic in Residence. Using tools from observational astronomy and computational astrodynamics, Roberts studies the behavior of Earth-orbiting satellites to understand how space actors—from superpowers to start-ups—engage with outer-space governance.

His research interests include international coordination, sustainability, and security in space. Roberts’ work has been supported by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation.

Roberts has earned numerous recognitions, including the Prize for Open Data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Geneva Centre for Security Policy’s Prize for Innovation in Global Security, and a placement on Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30 in Science” list.

He holds a PhD and SM in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT, an SM in technology and policy from MIT, and a BA in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University.

Emmanuelle David is the executive director of EPFL Space Center at the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne. The center launched in 2023 the sustainable space hub to foster an interdisciplinary research to measure, understand and act toward space sustainability.

Before joining EPFL in 2020, Emmanuelle has gathered more than 10 years’ experience in space transportation in academia, agency and industry from pre-development projects up to launch operations. She holds aerospace Engineering degrees both from the University of Technology of Compiegne, France, and the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany.

Dr. Xiao-Shan Yap is Assistant Professor of Innovation and Global Governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Yap is Principal Investigator and the director of a five-year research program (2024 – 2029) on ‘Planetary stewardship in view of earth-space sustainability’ (PLANETSTEWARDS), supported by a 1.5 million euro ‘Starting Grant’ from the European Research Council (ERC).  

An interdisciplinary social scientist, Yap focuses on the intersection of innovation and transitions, global governance, and development economics. She pioneered the concept of ‘earth-space sustainability’, which advocates for tackling challenges on Earth and in space in an integrative way as anthropogenic activities expand to outer space. In 2020, she founded ‘Earth-Space Sustainability’, the first science and policy initiative aiming at ensuring sustainable and functional earth-space systems in the future. In line with the initiative, she is also Co-Director of the Working Group on Earth-Space Governance at the Earth System Governance Project, Chair of the ‘2024 Earth-Space Symposium’, elected Co/Vice-Chair of the EU COST Action ‘Futures-oriented Governance of Outer Space: Towards Peace, Equity, and Environmental Integrity’ (FOGOS), Senior Policy Advisor to the EPFL Space Center, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne in Switzerland, and (Co)Chair of Commons in Space conference at the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) from 2022 – 2023. Additionally, Yap is a senior member of the Steering Group at the Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN) and serves on the Editorial Board of the leading journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. 

PM Soundar Rajan is  a pioneer and a leading expert in combat aircraft avionics by his peers from the Services and Aircraft Industry. Through the experience gained in the early eighties, with the development and evaluation of India’s first Digital Avionics Upgrade, he contributed towards the development and Integration of LCA Avionics (1986 to 1995).

With deep insight into HW and SW, he contributed towards development to deployment of COTS-based Mission Computers, Display Processors and Radar Computers for India’s Multirole combat aircraft (1996 to 2002). Pioneering HW and SW reuse, he developed the Core Avionics Computer. He upgraded India’s leading Attack aircraft without any help from the OEM (2002 to 2008).

During his tenure as Director, DARE he was instrumental in measures leading to self-reliance in the strategic area of avionics and airborne electronic warfare.  During the nineties, he played a key role in setting the syllabus for the ME Avionics at Anna University