Dr. Ray Williamson

Dr. Ray Williamson is the Senior Advisor and former Executive Director of Secure World Foundation, a private operating foundation with headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado. He was formerly Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs in the Space Policy Institute, The George Washington University. At the institute, he had led several studies of security issues in space and on the socioeconomic benefits of Earth science and space weather research. Ray is also an external faculty member of the International Space University (ISU), Illkirch, France, teaching general space policy and remote sensing for the ISU Masters and Space Studies programs. He is editor of Apogeo Spatial, formerly Imaging Notes, and serves on the editorial board of the journal Space Policy. As a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Dr. Williamson serves on Commission Five: Space Policies, Law & Economics. He is the author of more than 100 articles on space policy, remote sensing and space security and author or editor of nine books on outer space, the technologies of historic preservation, and American Indian astronomy, myth and ritual. From 1979 to 1995, he was a Senior Analyst and then Senior Associate in the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) of the U.S. Congress. While at OTA, Dr. Williamson led more than a dozen space policy studies requested by Congressional committees. Dr. Ray received his B.A. in physics from the Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Maryland. After two years on the astronomy faculty of the University of Hawaii, he taught philosophy, literature, mathematics, physics and astronomy at St. John's College, Annapolis. For the last five years he also served as Assistant Dean of the College.