Governance
Patrons
David Dangoor CBE
Honorary President
Dangoor Education provides opportunities across the learning spectrum with sponsorship of Westminster Academy, Open University Massive Open Online Courses, STEM university scholarships, the Dangoor Centre for Medical Education at the Royal Society of Medicine and the Dangoor Centre for Personalised Medicine at Bar Ilan University. Dangoor Education’s sponsorship of the UK, EU Space Design Competition and Galactic Challenges builds on the fantastic legacy of Sir Naim Dangoor, who supported the Competition for a number of years.
Marcus du Sautoy FRS, OBE
Patron
Is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Formerly a Fellow of All Souls College, and Wadham College, he is now a Fellow of New College. He was previously President of the Mathematical Association, an EPSRC Senior Media Fellow and a Royal Society University Research Fellow. His academic work concerns mainly group theory and number theory. In October 2008, he was appointed to the Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science, succeeding the inaugural holder Richard Dawkins.
Dr Randall Perry
Founder, Honorary Chair
Dr Perry founded the charity, Space Science Engineering Foundation (to be become known as SSE²F, E² adding “environmental”). The charity runs an array of STEM activities, such as the EnviroDC, within the UK and in the EU, Africa, and other international students. Dr Perry was a Royal Society Fellow at Imperial College London when he held the first design settlement event in 2008-9. An alumnus of the University of Washington, Dr Perry has held the US and Canada National Science Foundation Fellowship at Oxford University. His current focus is on education for students as potential industry professionals, utilising STEM.
Trustees
Shayne Beegadhur
Trustee Chair
Shayne is currently Spacecraft Operations Engineer at In-Space Missions. From competitor in SSEF competitions to a contributor to Space industry, Shayne’s story is an example of the impact we have on student’s lives. He joined us as a competitor in the UKSDC in 2016 and represented the EU and UK at the ISSDC in 2017 and 2018. He gained a lifelong appreciation for learning through action and the technical, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills required to solve truly complex problems.
He graduated with a first in Aeronautical Engineering MEng from Loughborough University in 2023. His early career has been filled with a breadth of engineering experiences developing drones, ships, submarines, orbital-class rockets and spacecraft at university and within industry. He is a Director of Engineering at Conex Research, an international thinktank creating novel space missions using emergent technology within the space sector. His summers are spent supporting the GSDC and running the Engineering Programme for ProEd et al, which supports the charity.
Jeremy Curtis
Trustee
Jeremy is an engineer by training and has spent most of his career working in space. He led the UK Space Agency’s education programme using space to inspire interest in STEM subjects and addressing the skills needs of the UK space sector. This included activities to support Tim
Peake’s mission to the ISS, which reached three million young people and a third of all schools across the UK.
He has also chaired the ESERO-UK Steering Group and the Organising Committee of the UK Space Conference. He has represented the UK on the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, helping to develop the Global Exploration Strategy, and led several major government reviews of microgravity and space exploration.
Dr Helen Oliver
Trustee (Safeguarding)
Helen Oliver is a Research Associate in the Networks and Operating Systems Group at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. She has been volunteering as a Judge and Technical Expert with the UKSDC since 2011, when she was working in the Design Engineering Group at Imperial College London. She has been a Judge at the International Finals at both NASA Johnson and NASA Kennedy. She is the original developer of designVUE, a concept mapping software application for capturing design rationale which was subsequently used in a project at NASA Ames to analyze a case study of system failure. Her current research interests include the Internet of Things, personal data stores and privacy by design, and wearable technology.
Dr Elizabeth Luthman
Founding Trustee
Liz first became involved with the Space Competition in 2010 as a technical expert in Space Structures. She was an integral part of the original founding team for the SSE²F. She graduated from the University of Bristol in 2007 with an MEng in Aerospace Engineering and has spent the last three years as an aeronautics researcher at Imperial College. Her PhD was in hypersonics (very high speed aerodynamics). She is currently at California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) and JPL. When she’s not working, Liz enjoys hiking, writing stories, drawing in London’s various museums and learning Japanese. Liz was also the organising chair for the 2011 UK Competition.
Louis Lyle
Trustee & Treasurer
Louis is a Mathematics and Statistics Graduate from the University of York. Louis is a past participant in the UKSDC and ISSDC, and was invited to join the UKSDC board in 2015. Since then he has held a number of roles in the competition from judge, to CEO, to technical advisor. In March 2023 he joined the Space Science Engineering & Environmental Foundation as a trustee. Louis is the Senior General Ledger Accountant at BAFTA and is in charge of managing the budgets for the Games and Craft Awards, as well as BAFTA’s branches in Scotland and Wales.
Professor Richard Ghail
Trustee
Richard Ghail is currently a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London. He has served for several years as a trustee and Chair of the SSE²F. Before moving to Royal Holloway he was a lecturer in Engineering Geology, based in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. His research interests are in The London Basin Forum, Intraplate Processes and the Neotectonics of Great Britain, Plate Tectonics of Buoyant Lithospheres and EnVision.
Previous Trustees
Jian He
Jian started volunteering with UKSDC since 2009，first as a supporting technical specialist, and later on as judge and “company” CEO. After completing his Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, he currently works as a reliability engineer in the petroleum industry, specialising in technical risk management and system reliability solutions in the hostile underwater environment. The best treat for his volunteering weekends is seeing creative ideas from young candidates coming together into designs
Adam Braithwaite
Adam completed his Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering at Imperial College in the summer of 2015, and is now a quantitative strategist at Goldman Sachs focused on pricing and modelling of derivative products across the securities business. In his scarce free time, he enjoys flying, scuba diving, and stealing unattended pizza at the competition finals.
Professor Mark Sephton
Mark Sephton is Professor of Organic Geochemistry at Imperial College London. He is an astrobiologist who develops new techniques for the detection of prebiotic chemistry and life in the solar system. In recognition of his work on extraterrestrial samples, asteroid 7552 ‘Sephton’ currently orbits between Mars and Jupiter. He is a science team member for the NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission that will collect samples of Mars for return to Earth and the Europa Clipper mission that will use mass spectrometry to search for evidence of habitability and life in the subsurface ocean of Jupiter’s icy moon.
Sir Christian Sweeting
Christian Sweeting is the Chairman of Palace Investments and is engaged in a number of charitable endeavours, including serving as a trustee of the Shalom Centre for peace and reconciliation. He is also a trustee of the Vatican City State Endowment dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the Vatican, its grounds and the art treasures of the Vatican museums. Christian is delighted to continue his support of the SSE²F and believes that the UK, EU Space Design Competition and Galactic Challenge is an extraordinarily valuable experience for everyone taking part, providing a tremendous opportunity, stimulus and experience which are essential in the formation of outstanding young people.
Esteemed Experts
Rafael Peters
Expert in Premium Eductation
Rafael (Rafi) is the managing director of the ProEd et al., which is a commercial limited company that helps support the SSE²F charity. He has been working in the premium education space since 2015. Former Commercial Director, and Director of Short Courses at Oxford International College, the UK’s No.1 school, he worked alongside some of the best minds in education in delivering unparalleled academic results and university destinations. He is passionate about adopting new, innovative methods of education. He is particularly interested in project-based learning and the important role it can play in their professional development. His goal at ProEd is to inspire and support students in realising their career aspirations. A former semi-professional tennis player, he is passionate about health and wellbeing.
Michael D Perry
Expert Financial Advisor
Mr. Michael D. Perry has worked during the 25 years prior to his retirement in senior financial positions at both publicly held and private companies. From 1979 to1998 Mr. Perry was with Belo Corporation (NYSE: BLC), a newspaper and television broadcasting company based in Dallas. He was Chief Financial Officer of Belo from 1987 to 1998, and was their Corporate Controller prior to that. In 1998 Mr. Perry moved to Silicon Valley and assumed the CFO post at Women.com (NASDAQ:WOMN), where he managed their successful IPO. Mr. Perry spent the remainder of his career from 2000 though 2007 as CFO of software companies Vitria Technology (NASDAQ:VITR), and privately held Siperian, which was acquired by Informatica (NASDAQ:INFA). Mr. Perry is a Michigan native, and earned a BS in Accounting and an MBA from Michigan State University. Mr. Perry is married, has two sons and lives in Beulah, Michigan and Scottsdale, Arizona.