【YouTube Live】NASA Tech Talks: Rice Space Institute and the UK Consultant in Houston ion

Описание: IN-PERSON: "This month NASA Tech Talks is partnering with the Rice Space Institute and the UK Consulate in Houston to bring you a special event featuring a delegation from the UK Science and Technology Network. We’ll get to hear from a panel of UK space experts followed by a very special fireside chat featuring Dr. David Alexander, the head of the Rice Space Institute, and Meganne Christian, ESA reserve astronaut and senior exploration manager. Along the way, we’ll learn about the exciting opportunities upcoming for UK-US space collaboration and ongoing projects at Rice, the European Space Agency (ESA), the UK Space Agency (UKSA), and in Houston more broadly."

About the Speakers
Meganne Louise Christian is a member of the 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group and Reserve Astronaut and Exploration Commercialization Lead at the UK Space Agency. In January 2025, she began the first of three, two-month Astronaut Reserve Training (ART) programs at ESA’s European Astronaut Center (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. Meganne completed her Doctorate at the University of New South Wales in industrial chemistry, studying the design, synthesis, and advanced characterization of nanomaterials for hydrogen storage applications. She was previously a materials scientist at the National Research Council (CNR) in Bologna, Italy, and atmospheric physicist at Concordia Station in Antarctica. As scientist in charge of atmospheric physics and meteorology at the French-Italian research base, she was responsible for various observatories, including radiation, meteorology, stratospheric lidars, chemical and physical atmospheric aerosols and infrared radiation for Antarctic clouds.

Dr. David Alexander is a professor of astrophysics at Rice University and a Rice faculty scholar at the Baker Institute. Alexander also serves as the Director of the Rice Space Institute. Alexander was awarded an OBE by her majesty Queen Elizabeth in June 2018 for services to the space industry, received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2004 and was appointed a Kavli Frontiers Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. He is former Chair of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society and has served on many professional committees including the NASA Advisory Council’s Heliophysics Subcommittee, and the NASA Solar Heliospheric Management and Operations Working Group. He has been named a GlobalScot by the Scottish government and was an elected member of the Board of Directors of the American Astronautical Society from 2018-2022. He served as Chair of the inaugural Aerospace and Aviation Industry Committee of the Greater Houston Partnership, has been on the Board of Directors of the Houston Spaceport Development Corporation since 2021 and was recently appointed to the Texas Aerospace Research and Space Economy Consortium Executive Committee. Alexander received his Bachelor of Science in Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, and his astrophysics doctorate from the University of Glasgow.

Montgomery B. Goforth has more than 40 years of experience as both Engineer and Manager in a variety of highly technical space and defense-related efforts. After working for a small defense contractor specializing in anti-submarine warfare, he joined NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 1990. He has held leadership positions in multiple JSC Directorates and Program Offices. In his previous role as Assistant Director of the JSC Engineering Directorate, he established a framework to better focus Engineering’s efforts towards Human Spaceflight technology and systems development consistent with JSC and Agency goals for exploration. Mr. Goforth is now serving as Acting Director of the Business Development & Technology Integration Office at JSC, and as the JSC Chief Technologist. In these capacities he will be helping to expand the Houston Aerospace Community through the identification of opportunities to develop space/terrestrial technologies of interest to JSC and Human Space Exploration. Mr. Goforth was born in East Texas, raised in Southern California and Arizona, and graduated from Rice University (BSME 1982, MSME 1987).