Exploring Space

I'm happy to announce that we have another fascinating speaker for TEDxIBYork. Bob Richards is a Toronto boy, having studied engineering at Ryerson and physics and astronomy at University of Toronto. He then headed to the US for a space science degree at Cornell, where he became special assistant to Carl Sagan.

Since his education, Bob has been immersed in space ventures. In 1987, he co-founded the International Space University, based in Strasbourg France, providing graduate-level education in all disciplines related to space programs and enterprises - space science, space engineering, systems engineering, space policy and law, business and management, and space and socirty. The ISU develops the future leaders of the world space community by providing interdisciplinary educational programs to students and space professionals in an international, intercultural environment.

Bob is still very active at ISU, and received an honorary doctorate from the institution in 2005. He's also the recipient of the K. E. Tsiolkovski Medal in Russia, the Space Frontier Vision to Reality award in the US, the Arthur C. Clarke Commendation in Sri Lanka, and the Aviation and Space Technology Laurel in the US. He may not be an astronaut, but he does get around on earth!

Bob is CEO of Odyssey Moon Limited, which is developing a sustainable commercial transportation system to deliver payload services to the Moon in support of science, exploration and commerce. The Company has designed a commercial lunar robotic transportation service to meet the pent up and growing demand for low cost, frequent access to the Moon and is a contender for the $30M Google Lunar XPrize.

More recently, Bob was a founding trustee of Singularity University. Based at NASA Ames campus in Silicon Valley, its mission is to assemble, educate and inspire leaders who understand and develop exponentially advancing technologies to address humanity's Grand Challenges.