Speakers
Space Resources
Christopher Johnson
Director of Legal Affairs and Space Law, Secure World Foundation
Christopher Johnson is the Director of Legal Affairs and Space Law at the Secure World Foundation, and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he co-teaches the Space Law Seminar. Mr. Johnson is also a Field Editor at the Journal of Space Safety Engineering, on the Board of Editors of the journal Air and Space Law. He serves on the US Board of Directors of the Space Generation Advisory Council. He is also an external PhD candidate at Leiden University’s International Institute of Air and Space Law, writing a monograph on the international legal order for the Moon. Mr. Johnson has written widely on space law and policy issues, and represents the Secure World Foundation at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).
Space Resources
Mathias Link
Deputy CEO, Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA)
Mathias Link is the Deputy CEO of the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA). He works on the definition and implementation of Luxembourg’s space sector development policy, with a focus on international affairs, legal & regulatory issues, public research & education, as well as finance and innovation. He coordinates the SpaceResources.lu initiative that aims to promote the exploration and utilization of space resources. He is the chairman of the steering committee of the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) and served as its first interim Director between 2020 and 2022.
For the past 15 years, Mathias Link has represented Luxembourg in space-related boards and committees at the European Space Agency, the European Union, and the United Nations. He was involved in preparing several ESA Council meetings at the Ministerial level and Luxembourg’s presidency of the Council of the EU in 2015.
Before becoming a civil servant, Mathias Link spent several years in the private sector, among others at the consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton (now Strategy&), Siemens Corporate Technology in Munich and the Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven.
Mathias Link holds a PhD in physics from the Université de Lorraine, and a Master in microengineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne. He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics.
Space Resources
Vasco Guerra
Vasco Guerra is Full Professor at the Department of Physics of Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, and the Head of the Modelling and Simulation activities of the N-PRiME group of Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear (IPFN). He held a visiting professor position at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science in 2020 and was invited professor at Sorbonne Université in 2016. His research focuses on the modelling of non-equilibrium kinetics of low-temperature molecular plasmas. In 2016 he was awarded the William Crookes Plasma Prize, co-sponsored by the European Physical Society and the Institute of Physics Publishing, “for the outstanding contribution to the modelling of molecular low-temperature plasmas.” His current research interests comprise the use of non-thermal plasmas for sustainable chemistry and space in-situ resource utilization.
Space Resources
Steven Freeland
Space Resources
Artemis Papathanassiou
Head of the International Law Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Greece
Dr. Artemis Papathanassiou is Head of the International Law Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Greece. She has a PHD in Public International Law.
She specializes on issues of international law and, in particular, on issues of international space law, air space law, international humanitarian law, and international cultural property law.
She has participated and participates in a large number of bilateral and multilateral negotiations, representing her country in the UN General Assembly (Sixth Committee), the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), the International Atomic Energy Agency, ICAO and UNESCO and is designated UNESCO Mediator for international cultural disputes.
She has participated, as invited lecturer and panellist, in several International Conferences and is author of several articles on issues of public international law.
Space Resources
Diana Jack
International Government Relations & Strategy Lead at Blue Origin
Diana Jack is currently the International Government Relations & Strategy Lead at Blue Origin, where she manages the company’s engagement on international policy issues and alignment with the United States’ and partner countries’ space policy goals. She has been with Blue Origin over two years, and previously was a Strategy Senior Manager leading the company’s orbital launch and space mobility strategy. Prior to joining Blue in 2022, Diana was a Senior Manager in Avascent’s space practice, providing management consulting services to traditional and new space companies and governments, including for growth, capture, market, and industrial strategies. She has previously held positions at the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Geneva Center for Security Policy, and the United States Council for International Business, working at the nexus of business and foreign policy. Diana has studied at the George Washington University Space Policy Institute, holds a Master’s in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, and a Bachelor’s summa cum laude in European Studies and German Language from Washington University in St. Louis.