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 & Board Member
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.
SSEF Team
Jenny Lyons
CEO
A passionate believer in the benefits that practical science brings to school based learning. Jenny has taught in both the private and public sectors, and additionally worked with a variety of agencies to promote and fund the setting up of Science Clubs. She received a BSc from University of Westminster in biological sciences. She has attended University of Sussex and received an endorsement to teach chemistry after receiving her PGCE from University of Middlesex.
Having worked voluntarily for the UK SDC, she is now excited to have the opportunity to extend their project based learning methods to a wider audience, and is looking forward to the continued success of the Space Science Engineering Foundation (SSE²F), the EUSDC, MEASDC and UKSDC and Galactic Challenges.
When not working with SSE²F and GC, Jenny enjoys the great outdoors by taking part in Open Water Swimming challenges, as a member of the UK Wild Camping group, and as an assessor and trainer for the Duke of Edinburgh scheme.
Sam Hession
Head of Events and Administration
Sam originally joined the SSE²F as the programme coordinator of the Global Space Design Challenge (GSDC), who’s sole purpose is to support the SSE²F charity. She has since become the secretary for the SSE²F and its overall Programme Coordinator. Sam is calm and efficient and as our Programme Coordinator, she enjoys using the super organised side of her personality to ensure that all our events run smoothly. Previously she spent 25 years providing world class customer service in the air with British Airways. Now that her wings have been clipped she is looking forward to being involved in all phases of the SSE²F charity programmes as well as organising and running the GSDC with the rest of the team. On her days off she can be found hanging out at the beach, paddle boarding, or officiating a basketball game.
Alison Ahearn
Director of Education
Alison Ahearn is the SSE²F Programme Developer and chair of the SSE²F Advisory Board. She remains as a Principal Teaching Fellow at Imperial College London, teaching undergraduates and postgraduates in civil engineering law and management. At College level, she works with the Educational Development Unit on teacher-development and the formalising of systems for recognising the learning achieved by students outside the classroom. Alison joined UKSDC for its first London final and brings boardroom experience from her 10 years as Chair of the Zebra Housing charity (student accommodation). Alison has a particular interest in industry-academic partnerships and verisimilitude in project-based learning.
Bethan Mann
IT, Web Master, and Administration
Bethan has 12 years of experience in customer relations, working most recently for HSBC bank. She has also worked within pediatric health care settings has spent time abroad caring for children with special needs. Her focus will be on developing worldwide Environmental Design Challenges and Eco Meets for 9-14 year olds.
Corrine Barker
Junior Programme Director
Corinne first competed in UKSDC in 2016/17 and was part of the EU team at the 2018 ISSDC. Since then Corinne has volunteered at in person and online UKSDC’s and GSDC’s, and ran the World Space Week Space Rangers competition. She finished her masters in Physics from Oxford University and now focuses on Galactic Challenge and Eco Meert programmes for 7-14 year olds. Corinne is often found rowing or coxing on the river and enjoys playing netball.
The Board
Rafael Peters
Board Chair
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.
Shayne Beegadhur
Trustee Co-Chair and Board Member
Shayne is an Aeronautical Engineering student at Loughborough University in his final year of studies. His early career has been filled with engineering experiences developing drones, rockets and spacecraft at university and within industry. He is a Director and the Head of Engineering at Conex Research, an international thinktank creating novel space missions using emergent technology within the space sector. Shayne works to inspire students to pursue a future in STEAM as a volunteer across many SSE²F properties. He joined us as a competitor in the UKSDC in 2016 and represent the EU and UK at the ISSDC in 2017 and 2018. Since then, he has been a key member of the UKSDC Board, RFP Subcommittee and representative at the Italian Space Design Competition in Milan. His summers are spent supporting the GSDC and running the Engineering Programme for ProEd et al, which supports the charity.
Trisha Saxena
Trustee Co-Chair and Board Member
Trisha holds a Master of Science degree in Physics from Imperial College London. While studying, she was recognised as the Female Undergraduate of the Year in 2017. She currently works as an Investment Associate at the NATO Innovation Fund, a European venture capital fund investing in promising defence, security and space startups. Trisha has been on the Organising Board and a judge at the UK Space Design Competition since 2016, prior to which she competed in the competition herself and was elected to the team representing the UK at the International Space Settlement Design Competition in 2015. She is also the outgoing Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Space Science and Engineering Foundation.
Professor Richard Ghail
Trustee and Board Member
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.
Adam Braithwaite
Trustee
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.
Michael D Perry
Financial Advisor and Board Member
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.
Trustees
Professor Mark Sephton
Trustee
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.
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.
Sir Christian Sweeting
Trustee
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.
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.
Jian He
Trustee
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
UKSDC Board
Theo Macklin
RFP/Intellectual Property Content Coordinator and Technical Administrator. UKSDC Board
Theo is just finishing/has just finished his masters in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London and is about to begin/has begun a PhD developing new, faster techniques for simulating nuclear reactors. After competing in the UK Space Design Competition from 2016-2018 and competing with the EU team at the international finals at NASA, Theo has gone on to have a wide-ranging involvement with space and nuclear subjects: from leading Imperial College Space Society’s Rocket Engine Design Programme; building reaction control thrusters for a cube-sat; reaching the top twenty in The Mars Society’s City States competition alongside other UKSDC volunteers; updating maintenance and safety guidelines for part of the JET fusion reactor; and publishing new models and theories for the construction of mechanical counterpressure spacesuits (International Conference on Environment Systems 2022). Theo helps to run a selection of the UKSDC’s events and is continually looking to add to its educational value while making it more enjoyable. Theo doesn’t have time to do much else, although he manages to run a weekly Dungeons and Dragons game!
Neelesh Ravichandran
Director of Design and Publications. UKSDC Board
Neelesh is in his third year of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London. He competed in the 2016/17 National competition and has volunteered at UKSDC and the Galactic Challenge events as well as supervising the 2017/18 Internationals (ISSDC) trip to the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. He is an avid tennis player and fan. He also enjoys his fair share of hackathons.
Liam Donnelly
Competition Resources Manager. UKSDC
Liam first competed in the UK Space Design Competition in the 2019/2020 cycle, although his competition experience was not all plain sailing. Despite losing his first Regional qualifying competition, the space design bug had well and truly bitten and Liam returned through the video competition to the National and later International Finals which he won in 2020. After returning for another successful cycle in the 2020/2021 year, Liam still hadn’t got enough space design and continued to return as a volunteer, including helping to update the website with all the settlement and subcontractor information that is essential to the UKSDC universe! Liam is currently studying Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College London and is hoping to specialise in spacecraft engineering in his third year.
James Hayes
UKSDC Board Member
James is a fourth-year Aerospace Systems student at the University of Glasgow and an alumnus of the UKSDC. He has a keen interest in high-powered rocketry, recently gaining his Level 1 Flight Certification. His interests are in systems engineering, space mission design, and embedded programming.