Robert Richards
Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards is the Founder and CEO of Odyssey Moon Limited, a commercial lunar enterprise based in the Isle of Man and the first official registrant in the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. He is also the Director of Space Technology at Optech Incorporated of Canada, where he presided over the first commercial lidar scanner flown in space as well as the first meteorological lidar flown to another planet aboard the NASA Phoenix Mars Lander. Bob studied aerospace and industrial engineering at Ryerson University; physics and astronomy at the University of Toronto; and space science at Cornell University where he became special assistant to Carl Sagan. In 1987 Bob founded the International Space University (ISU) with Peter Diamandis and Todd Hawley; today a well established global institution operating out of its Central Campus in Strasbourg, France, with thousands of graduates worldwide. Bob first joined forces with Diamandis and Hawley in the creation of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) and the Space Generation Foundation. Bob is a strong advocate of the NewSpace movement and has been a catalyst for a number of astropreneurial ventures throughout his career. He is the recipient of the K.E. Tsiolkovski Medal (Russia, 1995), the Space Frontier “Vision to Reality” Award (USA, 1994), the Arthur C. Clarke Commendation (Sri Lanka, 1990) and the Aviation & Space Technology Laurel (USA, 1988). He is a contributing author of "Blueprint for Space", published by the Smithsonian Institution (1992), and "Return to the Moon", published by Apogee Books (2005). In 2005 Bob received a Doctorate of Space Achievement (honoris causa) from the International Space University for “distinguished accomplishments in support of humanity’s exploration and use of space.”