ASU Interplanetary Initiative announces formation of advisory board

ASU Interplanetary Initiative has announced the launch of its newly formed board. The advisory board was curated to include distinguished cross-sector thought leaders whose collective experience will shape and guide the strategies for advancing Interplanetary Initiative’s space market priorities.

The new board will be chaired by Lindy Elkins-Tanton, managing director and co-chair of ASU Interplanetary Initiative, principal investigator for NASA Psyche mission and co-founder of Beagle Learning. 

“We are thrilled that this engaged, accomplished group of experts are joining our efforts,” Elkins-Tanton said. “This board includes experts on space policy, law, technology, industry, art and new venture development. And as time passes we’ll add more of the critical disciplines needed for our interplanetary future.”

New Interplanetary Initiative Board members: 

Lisa B. Callahan

Lisa Callahan is vice president and general manager of commercial civil space at Lockheed Martin Space. Whether it’s returning humans to the moon, gathering samples from asteroids, exploring the planets of our solar system or peering back in time with the Hubble telescope, Callahan leads the teams who are building and operating the spacecraft that are unlocking the riddles of our universe.

Rejane Cantoni

Rejane Cantoni is a new media artist based in São Paulo, Brazil. She holds several postgraduate degrees and has taught art and technology at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. Her installations use sound, visuals and touch to allow the public to explore unique environments. 

Jessy Kate Schingler

Jessy Kate Schingler is a founding board member and chief policy analyst at the Open Lunar Foundation, focused on policy and institution design for near term lunar activity. She is also an affiliate at Harvard’s Berman Klein Center for Internet and Society and French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, looking at the application of new institutional designs to pressing global challenges here on Earth.

Tanja Masson-Zwaan

Tanja Masson-Zwaan is an assistant professor and deputy director of the International Institute of Air and Space Law at Leiden University and president emeritus of the International Institute of Space Law. She advises the Dutch government on space law issues and co-founded the Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group. She served on various boards, including the European Centre for Space Law, Women in Aerospace-Europe, the Netherlands Space Society and Secure World Foundation.

Rob Meyerson

Rob Meyerson is an aerospace executive providing management consulting services to the aerospace, mobility, technology and financial sectors. He specializes in concept development through execution — scaling teams from zero to hundreds and utilizing extensive government, industry and university networks to ensure success, as he previously did for NASA, Kistler Aerospace and as the former president of Blue Origin.

Amy Salzhauer 

Amy Salzhauer is a founder and managing partner at Good Growth Capital, an early-stage venture fund that invests in transformative science and technology. Salzhauer was previously the CEO of Ignition Ventures, where she and her team helped transfer technologies ranging from self-organizing networks to black silicon and selective brain cooling out of academic research labs. She is an inventor who holds several patents and speaks and teaches internationally about entrepreneurship and leadership and has served on multiple corporate and nonprofit boards. Her previous experience includes writing for magazines like Newsweek, Science, Technology Review and Harvard Business Review, researching radioactive mutant slime molds, drumming for the U.S. National Dragonboat Team, and serving as the assistant director of a nonprofit environmental organization in Washington, D.C. She holds degrees from Harvard, Cambridge and MIT. 

John Thurmond

John Thurmond is currently the principal adviser for emerging technology for Hess and has spent more than 20 years in the energy industry working across the value chain with a focus on innovation. He holds a PhD in geoscience from the University of Texas at Dallas and currently resides in Houston.

Scott Webster

Scott Webster was a co-founder, executive and director of Orbital Sciences Corporation and a director of its successor, Orbital ATK, as these grew from three to 12,000 employees and zero to $5 billion in sales. He’s a director of ENSCO, Inc., FreeFall Aerospace and former board chair of ORBCOMM, Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions and MBDA, Inc.