Date: 24 June 2025 @ 19.00
Venue: BIS HQ London and Online via Zoom
Professor David Southwood will talk about his 10 years as Director of Science and Robotic Exploration at ESA where he oversaw the contracting, construction and launch of many science missions, including integral instruments for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Speaker Profile:
David Southwood is a Senior Research Investigator in the Physics Dept. Imperial College and Chair of the London Institute for Space Policy and Law. David spent an academic career largely at Imperial. becoming Head of Physics in 1994. In 1997, he joined the European Space Agency, drawing up a plan leading to the present EU Copernicus/ESA Earth Explorer Earth Observation programmes. In 2001, he became ESA Science Director overseeing ESA missions to orbit Moon, Mars, Venus, and land on Titan as well as building/launching astronomy spacecraft, like Herschel, Planck, Integral, Gaia and the ESA contribution to JWST. He returned to Imperial in 2011 and served as President of the Royal Astronomical Society (2012-2014) and chair of UK Space Agency Steering Board (2016-2019). He received a CBE in the 2019 for services to space science and industry in UK and Europe