Service

Service to American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

I serve on two committees of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA): the Space Resources Technical Committee (SRTC) since May 2020 (Vice Chair since June 2024). I also serve on the Lunar Surface Exploration and Development Task Force since June 2024.

As a volunteer with the organizing team for the AIAA ASCENDxCoLab on Economically Viable Lunar Settlements, in the summer of 2020 I helped support a 200-person workshop. Subsequently, with four colleagues from MIT, we edited the workshop output into an AIAA Proceedings Report titled Ensuring Economically Viable Lunar Settlements.

Service to MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

At MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, in 2019-2020 I created our flagship annual speaker and technology showcase event SpaceTech. The event has been held every year since then. I served as the program lead for SpaceTech in spring 2025.

Photo: Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks at the MIT AeroAstro's SpaceTech 2022 event

The MIT Space Resources Workshop, which I had founded and led since 2017 with support from the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has raised over $900,000 in competitive grants and prizes to date and provided opportunities to several hundreds of MIT students from many Departments, Courses and backgrounds, including graduate and undergraduate researchers, to participate in NASA design competitions, build prototypes, publish papers and present their work at academic conferences.

Photo: the lab space of MIT's Space Resources Workshop (37-084)

THANK YOU! Our many projects at the Space Resources Workshop have been an incredible learning experience for everyone, first and foremost for me. I am indebted to each and every one of my colleagues on all our projects.