PROJECT TEAM
Assistant Prof. Xiao-Shan Yap
Director and Principal Investigator
Xiao-Shan Yap is Assistant Professor in Innovation and Global Governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University and Principal Investigator of PlanetStewards. In 2020, she founded ‘Earth-Space Sustainability’, the first science and policy initiative aiming at ensuring sustainable and functional earth-space systems. She is also Co-Director of the Working Group on Earth-Space Governance at the Earth System Governance Project, Chair of the 2024 Earth-Space Symposium, and a senior member of the Steering Group at the Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN).
.png)
Blake Harvey
PhD Candidate
Blake is a PhD candidate in Innovation for Earth and Space Sustainability. She has conducted research on justice and equity in global climate change governance, investigating hegemonic discourses within scientific research on solar geoengineering and hypothetical large-scale climate intervention. Her university award-nominated research combines critical justice perspectives to provide policy and research recommendations to advance pluralistic earth system futures. As Network Coordinator of the Earth System Governance Project, she mobilized the largest research network aiming to advance knowledge at the interface between global environmental change and governance. She holds an MSc in earth system governance from Utrecht University and a BA in environmental studies from Boston College.
Erin Jones
PhD Candidate
Erin Jones is a PhD candidate working on PlanetStewards. As a senior researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, she worked at the intersection of sustainability, democracy, and social justice issues. Most recently, Erin co-led a project on global climate activism through the Civic Research Network. She holds a master's in European public policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she conducted research on topics including internet governance and multilateral decision-making. During her bachelor's at Johns Hopkins, she double-majored in creative writing and international studies with a focus on political theory.
_edited.jpg)
Ori Morales Hernández
Research Assistant
Ori Morales Hernández is the research assistant working on the PlanetStewards Project. They recently graduated from the MSc in History and Philosophy of Science at Utrecht University, and have a background in Sociology and International Relations from Erasmus University of Rotterdam. Their recent research has focused on performative and queer epistemologies in the 20th century. They are interested in exploring the philosophical implications of the use of science and technology within space governance.
Marie Delcourt
Research Intern
Marie Delcourt is a research intern for the PlanetStewards Project. She is currently pursuing a second Master’s degree in Applied Ethics, and has a background in continental philosophy specializing in political and moral philosophy. Marie's research within the project focuses on space ethics, particularly examining the ethical values and perspectives embedded in space regulatory frameworks. She is particularly interested in the normative dimensions of space resource utilization and the ethical challenges surrounding sustainable resource exploitation.
Bart Janssen
MSc Candidate
Bart is currently enrolled at Utrecht University where he is finishing his Master's in Innovation Sciences and writing his thesis for the PlanetStewards Project. His research is currently focusing on the environmental and socio-cultural aspects of space mining. Bart has a background in IT and an interest in the most upcoming technologies, thus why he enjoys researching topics related to earth-space sustainability.
Zofia Łysoń
MSc Candidate
Zofia Łysoń is an MSc student in Sustainable Business and Innovation at Utrecht University and a BIM MEP Engineer. She holds a BSc in Environmental Engineering from Warsaw University of Technology and works in the building environment sector, where she focuses on implementing sustainable solutions in MEP engineering. As part of her master’s research with the PlanetStewards Project, she explores the sustainability aspects of space travel and launch systems. Through her work and studies, she strives to advance innovation and industry transformation while prioritizing environmental responsibility.
Nazar Yilmaz
MSc Candidate
Nazar Yilmaz's research explores the connection between space sustainability and Earth's planetary boundaries. As space debris increases, it threatens both space exploration and environmental stability. Nazar focuses on governance frameworks that promote responsible space activities and long-term sustainability. By addressing these challenges, her work aims to support policies ensuring a sustainable future for Earth and space.
Charlotte Ballard
Communications Advisor
Charlotte Ballard is Communications and Impact Advisor for the PlanetStewards Project and at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. Her work focuses on developing impact pathways for research of and for transformative change towards a more sustainable and equitable society, for both people and nature.
PROJECT ASSOCIATES
Assistant Prof. Timothy Pape
Timothy Pape is an Assistant Professor in the School of Earth, Environment and Society at Bowling Green State University and Courtesy Faculty in the Environmental Sciences Graduate Program at Oregon State University. His interdisciplinary research focuses on how human-nature relationships affect ecosystem governance on Earth and in outer space. He uses various social science methods to understand the values, associations, and assemblages which inform environmental decision-making and sustainable resource planning.
PROJECT ADVISORY BOARD
Prof. Frank Biermann
Frank Biermann is a research professor of Global Sustainability Governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. He is the PhD Promotor of PlanetStewards. Biermann pioneered the ‘earth system’ governance paradigm in global change research in 2005 and was the founder and first chair (2008-2018) of the Earth System Governance Project, a leading global transdisciplinary research network of sustainability scholars. He also directs a research programme on the steering effects of the Sustainable Development Goals, supported by an ERC Advanced Grant.
Assoc. Prof. Camilla Colombo
Camilla Colombo is Associate Professor in Orbital Mechanics at Politecnico di Milano, leading the COMPASS group whose research focuses on orbital dynamics, spacecraft trajectory design, space sustainability, space traffic management, space debris modelling and planetary protection. Camilla is the principal investigator of the project GREENSPECIES supported by an ERC Consolidator Grant on the “Robust control of the space debris population to define optimal policies and an economic revenue model for sustainable development of space activities”. She was also granted an ERC Starting Grant on the project COMPASS “Control for Orbit Manoeuvring through Perturbations for Application to Space Systems” and several ESA and ASI funded projects. She is delegate for the Italian Space Agency at the Inter Agency Debris Coordination Committee and the UN mandated Space Mission Planning Advisory Group for missions to asteroids.
Prof. Pascale Ehrenfreund
Pascale Ehrenfreund is the President of the Committee of Space Research (COSPAR) and Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs at the Space Policy Institute/George Washington University in Washington DC. She serves as Co-Chair of the Global Future Council on Space of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and as Member of the Advisory Council of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Pascale was the President of the International Space University (2021-2023), the President of the International Astronautical Federation (2019-2022), and the Chair of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) (2015-2020). Pascale is enlisted in the Stanford World Ranking Top 2% Scientists 2022 and holds a Master degree in Molecular Biology and a PhD in Astrophysics. The asteroid “9826 Ehrenfreund 2114 T-3” bears her name.
Prof. Moriba Jah
Moriba Jah is Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Privateer as well as Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the director for Computational Astronautical Sciences and Technologies (CAST), a group within the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences as well as the Lead for the Space Security and Safety Program at the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law. Moriba came to UT Austin by way of the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory prior to that, where he was a Spacecraft Navigator on a handful of Mars missions.
Prof. Marco Janssen
Marco Janssen is a Professor at the School of Sustainability and director of the Center for Behavior, Institutions, and the Environment, both at Arizona State University. His research focuses on governance of shared resources in the lab, field, online, and outer space. It combines behavioral experiments, computational modeling, and comparative case study analysis. Notable applications are the use of games to stimulate self-governance of groundwater in rural India, and the development of a computational model to support water governance in Mexico City.
Assoc. Prof. Rakhyun E. Kim
Rakhyun E. Kim is Associate Professor of Earth System Governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. Kim is Co-Director of the Working Group on Earth-Space Governance and the Task Force on Earth System Law at the Earth System Governance Project. He directs a research programme on 'problem shifting' between international environmental treaties, supported by an ERC Starting Grant.
Prof. Bernhard Truffer