Professor Richard Crowther

Professor Richard Crowther, Chief Engineer, UK Space Agency Professor Richard Crowther is Chief Engineer at the UK Space Agency. He was Head of the Space Technology Division at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory until 2008 with primary research interests in man-made orbital debris, planetary protection, and near Earth objects (asteroids and comets that pass close to the Earth). He is currently Head of the UK delegations to the Inter-Agency Debris Committee and the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS), in the past acting as Chair of the UN Working Group on Near Earth Objects within COPUOS. Professor Crowther also leads the UK delegation to the European Space Agency’s International Relations Committee, and Space Situational Awareness Programme Board. He is one of the fifteen members of the Group of Governmental Experts appointed by the United Nations in 2012 to examine transparency and confidence building measures in outer space. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and was recently elected to the International Institute of Space Law and the International Academy of Astronautics.