Amor A. Menezes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida, also affiliated with the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and the Genetics Institute. His research interests lie in the modeling and control of biological processes for medical and space applications. His group uses feedback control to manipulate the concentrations of proteins driving inflammation-mediated coagulation disorders; advances the theory of biomolecular dynamical systems whose states are restricted to non-negative values; designs integrated biomanufacturing systems for Mars deployment; and genetically engineers microbes to reject extreme environments. His research results have been published in the top associated journals, including Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, and Automatica. His research has also been featured by national and international media outlets, including Science Today (CBS Radio), Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Der Spiegel, and Cosmos Magazine. He was Principal Investigator of three multi-university microbial biomanufacturing experiments launched to the International Space Station on SpaceX CRS-27, SpaceX Crew-7, and SpaceX CRS-31, as well as Science Principal Investigator of NASA's Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space.

Dr. Menezes received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, and completed postdocs in Aerospace Engineering and Bioengineering at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley, respectively. He is an NSF CAREER awardee, a past fellow of the Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program, and a past fellow of the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Control Systems Society Technology Conference Editorial Board. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Member of AIAA, ASME, and ASGSR. His lab is funded by the DoD, NASA, and NSF.

Emmanuel Urquieta, M.D., M.S., FAsMA, is the Vice Chair of Aerospace Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Central Florida – College of Medicine. In his role at UCF, he oversees the development of research, education, and partnerships in the domain of aerospace medicine.

Prior to joining UCF,  Dr. Urquieta served as the Chief Medical Officer at the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health where we managed a multi-million dollar portfolio of medical research for missions to the Moon and Mars, the commercial spaceflight program EXPAND, and analog capabilities, including partnerships with the Australian Antarctic Division.

Dr. Urquieta has experience providing medical care in austere and remote environments serving as a flight surgeon in Mexico City’s Police Department Helicopter Emergency Medical Services, participating in hundreds of rescue missions and aeromedical evacuations. He has volunteered in medical missions around the world. In 2017, Dr. Urquieta was selected as a crew member of the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) XI mission at NASA Johnson Space Center, spending 30 days in a capsule simulating a deep space long-duration mission. He is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association, and an academician of the International Astronautical Association, and has authored and co-authored dozens of publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Dr. Urquieta holds a medical degree and specialty in emergency medicine from Anahuac University in Mexico City and an M.S. in aerospace medicine from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Urquieta frequently appears at scientific meetings and connects with reporters to discuss the effects of space on the human body and potential interventions to promote human space exploration.

Dr. Erika Wagner serves as Senior Director of Emerging Market Development for Blue Origin, a developer of vehicles and technologies to enable human space transportation.

Prior to joining Blue Origin, Dr. Wagner worked with the X PRIZE Foundation as Senior Director of Exploration Prize Development and founding Executive Director of the X PRIZE Lab@MIT. Previously, she served at MIT as Science Director and Executive Director of the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program, a multi-university spacecraft development initiative to investigate the physiological effects of reduced gravity. Erika has previously served as a member of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation's Suborbital Applications Researchers Group, the Board of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research, and NASA's Planetary Protection Independent Review Board. Today, she serves as a Trustee of the Museum of Flight, as well as a member of the National Academies' Space Studies Board.

Dr. Wagner's interdisciplinary academic background includes a bachelor's in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, a master's in Aeronautics & Astronautics from MIT, and a PhD in Bioastronautics from the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Her research spanned both human and mammalian adaptation to microgravity, partial gravity, and centrifugation; as well as organizational innovation and prize theory. She is also an alumna of the International Space University and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Frederic Zenhausern is the director of the center for applied nanobioscience and medicine at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine – Phoenix and the director of the university’s department of biomedical engineering. He was co-founder and director of the Flexible Display Center at ASU MacroTechnology Works, which focuses on semiconductor research, photovoltaics, batteries and power-electronics work. He also leads a personalized medicine research lab at HonorHealth Clinical Research Institute. Earlier in his career, he co-founded Nanobiomics, which was later acquired in 2008. He earned his doctorate of science in applied physics from the department of condensed physics matter at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

Dr. Julie Brisset holds two MSc. in Aerospace Engineering from Universities in Toulouse, France, and Munich, Germany. After working as a microgravity payload operations engineer for the German aerospace agency (DLR) for several years, she earned her PhD in Physics at the University of Braunschweig, Germany, working on experimental astrophysics.

Dr. Brisset's research interests are focused around the behavior of dust and ice grains in microgravity conditions with applications to the early stages of planet formation and the structure and surfaces of small bodies in the Solar System. She is currently the interim director of the Florida Space Institute of the University of Central Florida. In that role, her goal is to grow the institute's research and technology development portfolio, while providing exceptional training opportunities for students.

Vice President – Space Commerce and Entrepreneurship

Kelli Kedis Ogborn’s leadership has played a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of companies entering the space market. With extensive experience in R&D and cutting-edge technology applications for the U.S. government and private sector, her methodologies guide organizations and companies that are transitioning from development ecosystems to market capitalization.

In her role as Vice President of Space Commerce and Entrepreneurship at Space Foundation, Kedis Ogborn leads Space Commerce Institute, an initiative aimed at providing valuable insights and actionable programming to empower countries, individuals, and companies to carve out their niche and thrive in the rapidly expanding space economy.

Prior to joining Space Foundation, Kedis Ogborn was President and Chief Operating Officer of Advanced Rockets Corporation (an aerospace company specializing in hypersonic flight), President and Chief Executive Officer of H.S. Dracones (a consulting company specializing in technology commercialization) and was contracted as the Congressional Liaison to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In the DARPA liaison role, she provided advice to senior leadership and technical offices on Congressional engagement strategies to maintain the agency’s position and reputation as a premier science and technology organization.

Kedis Ogborn is an often-published author and speaker on the market applications of innovation and has worked extensively as an authoritative voice within the emerging space economy – qualifying and quantifying the economic drivers and technology trends driving the industry forward and shaping its investment potential and growth. She is also a frequent panel reviewer and technology assessor for commercialization merit of government R&D proposals and mentor for entrepreneurs.

She holds an International Security and Conflict Resolution Bachelor’s Degree from San Diego State University, a Political Science Bachelor’s Degree from Stockholm University, and a Master’s Degree in Government and Security Studies from The Johns Hopkins University.

Laura Forczyk is the Executive Director of space consulting firm Astralytical and a space career coach. She has nearly 20 years of space sector experience within academia, government, and industry. An astrophysicist and planetary scientist by training, she approaches business with an emphasis on data and analysis.

She is the author of Rise of the Space Age Millennials (2020) and Becoming Off-Worldly (2022). She runs the private online community Becoming Off-Worldly Together. She serves as an advisor for For All Moonkind. She is the VP of Research and Analytics for the Beyond Earth Institute. Prior to forming her own company, she ran the Florida office of an international startup working to establish parabolic and suborbital flight at Kennedy Space Center and globally. She has also worked as a scientific analyst for a nonprofit facilitating over 50 experiments on the International Space Station for the benefit of life on Earth.

Mo combines 25+ years of management experience as a consultant, marketer, speaker, facilitator and instructor to provide strategic consulting to business owners, presidents and top management in B2B and B2C companies. With past positions in a Fortune 100 company to dot com startups to owning her own firm, she has a stunning array of expertise and understanding of software, high-tech, aerospace, medical device, health care, nonprofit, manufacturing and professional service industries. This enables her to strategically source ideas from a variety of perspectives and apply them in ways not commonly found in some industries.

A sought after speaker, Mo connects with audiences and keeps them engaged with thought provoking ideas and learning they can implement that day. As an instructor, Mo creates relationships with ease and immediately begins offering value to groups in a casual, yet serious manner. She is a natural connector and makes introductions and strategic alignments by linking entrepreneurs and established business owners. As a facilitator, Mo has the honed ability to allow for constructive dialog while managing content and time. With entrepreneurs, she is enthusiastic and supportive coupled with realistic questioning and challenging ideas to ensure the best outcome.

Mo specializes in strategically guiding business leaders with ideas, best practices, execution actions and accountability to market and grow his or her business. In addition to the above, her expertise includes:

• Strategic planning consulting, facilitation and execution
• Marketing plan creation and execution
• Professional facilitation of business accelerators, peer advisory boards and executive retreats
• Business model development, pricing, product positioning, channel management and marketing communication
• Business plan development
• New product launches
• Commercializing new products
• Project management
• Forming successful strategic alliances
• Tradeshow and conference management

Mo is keenly interested in helping entrepreneurs change their mindset as to how to launch, position and sell their products. Mo is a committed volunteer serving on several for-profit and nonprofit boards of directors and volunteers with teens and social impact projects.

As a toddler with awe-filled eyes glued to the TV, every Moon landing further fueled Robert Katz’s space aspirations. The now Space-Advocate, Cyber-Strategist, Fitness-Freak, and (Real) RocketScientist could not resist tinkering with robots and rockets even before kindergarten. By his first year in college, he was privileged to be interning on the Hubble Space Telescope.

Soon, armed with newly minted undergraduate degrees in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Chemistry, plus then Graduate Studies in Systems Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, Robert spearheaded the spaceborne protection of Reagan’s communist-crushing Strategic Defense Initiative (The Star Wars Program). This MIT assignment posted him within the Pentagon and firmly boosted his non-stop space career throughout our government, industry, non-profit, and national lab/FFRDC communities, both in the U.S. and internationally. He delivered space, cyber-space, and AI success for clients including CIA, NSA, NGA, NRO, FBI, DEA, DHS, NIST, NOAA, ONR, Justice, Johns Hopkins, and numerous DoD components, including U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command, USCYBERCOM, USSOCOM, CENTCOM. CBIRF, and DEVGRU.

Most of his space career targeted unlocking the immeasurable hyper-connective, society-changing potential of satellites and space. This included executive positions or strategist engagements with NASA, COMSAT, Inmarsat, Stratos, Orbital, GE, COMSAT General, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, and CACI. For each, he championed holistic problem-centric solution engineering, which he developed into his crossdomain SOLUTIONneering™ Framework.

Working on-the-ground in over 23 partner countries, Robert forged global alliances to harness the power of space for novel messaging, geo-location, and radar imaging. This included pioneering deployment of the first global internet service, the first global personnel geo-location mapper, the first canopy and ground penetrating imager, the first car tracker, and the first piracy distress alert System.

Yet Robert goes beyond just leading and supporting satellite initiatives for government and established enterprises. As an “ecosystem engineer” uniting technology, talent, and tactics, Robert taps these networks to build, bridge, bolster, and boost startup initiatives for the U.S. and our allies.

Beyond just protecting his country by safeguarding our outer-space, cyber-space, and neural-space (robotics/AI), Robert further protects his community as a firefighter-paramedic, HAZMAT/ChemBioRadNuc specialist, and rescue diver. He remains laser-focused on unleashing the alluring inspiration of space to ignite, and unite, SpaceTech innovation from within our next-generation of explorers, just as space did for him. Accelerated by his Strategic Earthshot Initiative, Robert stands confident that #ConnectingTheThoughts for #MissionsThatMatter will ensure both workforce and economic development by simultaneously strengthening the technological and national security of our communities, our companies, our countries, and our planet.

Siobhan Malany, an associate professor at the University of Florida, studies the effects of microgravity on human muscle biology using an automated tissue chip system. Her research seeks to implement improved in-vitro cell-based systems to better predict how effective drugs will be for various diseases, particularly for muscle diseases. Her lab has developed a microphysiological system – called a “tissue chip” – to study age-related muscle wasting. The lab is using patients’ cells in a 3D culture integrated into a microfluidic device that was sent to the International Space Station in 2020. She will teach a lesson on Full Space Experiment Life Cycle.

Stefanie Countryman is the director of BioServe Space Technologies and a research association within the University of Colorado Boulder’s aerospace engineering and science department. As director, she has worked on the development and management of more than 50 space-life science experiments, making her an expert in the process of developing, launching and operating life science experiments in space. Her focus has been on mammalian cell culture life science experiments, including examining the microgravity effects on proximal tubule epithelial cells of the kidneys. She will teach the lesson about Full Space Experiment Life Cycle.