Michael Pawlyn is an architect, writer and public speaker. He has been described as an expert in regenerative design and biomimicry. He established his firm Exploration Architecture in 2007 to focus on high performance buildings and solutions for the circular economy. The company has developed a ground-breaking office project, an ultra-low energy data centre, a zero waste textiles factory and progressive solutions for green cities. Michael Pawlyn jointly initiated the widely acclaimed Sahara Forest Project; the latest version of which was opened by the King of Jordan in 2017.

• Prior to setting up Exploration, Michael Pawlyn worked with Grimshaw for ten years and was central to the team that designed the Eden Project. He is regularly booked as a keynote speaker on innovation and his TED talk has had over 2 million views.

• He has written two books - Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency (co-authored with Sarah Ichioka) and Biomimicry in Architecture – both of which have been the respective publisher’s best-selling title. In 2019 he jointly initiated ‘Architects Declare a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency’ – a global call to action which has spread to 28 countries with over 7,000 firms signed up.

• He has delivered a numbered of high profile lectures including as part of the following programmes: Cambridge University Darwin College Lecture Series, The Genius of Nature Series at the Natural History Museum of Utah, The CE100 Annual Summit organised by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

• He has been featured in The Financial Times, National Geographic, The Economist, Wired and The Guardian as well as in a large number of design magazines. His television and radio appearances include ‘Animal Einsteins’ on BBC television and a number of programmes on BBC Radio 4.

Dr. Erika Wagner serves as the Lead for US BusinessDevelopment at The Exploration Company, one of the fastest growing spacecompanies globally, building reusable space capsules and lunar landers. Previously,Dr. Wagner spent more than a decade at Blue Origin, where she helped drive thecompany’s go-to-market strategies in suborbital research, commercial spacestations, and lunar technologies. Earlier, she worked with the X PRIZEFoundation as Senior Director of Exploration Prize Development and foundingExecutive Director of the X PRIZE Lab@MIT. She also served at MIT as ScienceDirector and Executive Director of the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program.

In the community, Dr. Wagner has worked with The NationalAcademies since 2014, including her current seat on the Steering Committee forA Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars. Her Board service currentlyfocuses on STEM/STEAM engagement and innovation with The Museum of Flight andAurelia Institute. She is an advocate for gender diversity in tech with theInternational Women’s Forum and Brooke Owens Fellowship.

Dr. Wagner’s interdisciplinary academic background includes studiesin Biomedical and Aerospace Engineering from Vanderbilt University, MIT, InternationalSpace University, and the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences andTechnology. Her research spanned both human and mammalian adaptation tomicrogravity, partial gravity, and centrifugation; as well as organizationalinnovation and prize theory. She has been named a Fellow of the AmericanSociety for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) and the Explorers Club,and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics andAstronautics (AIAA).

Abigail (Abby) Harrison is the Lead of Research for Starlab and the Voyager Institute for Space, Technology, and Advancement (VISTA) teams at The Ohio State University (OSU). Starlab is a commercial space station being developed by an international joint venture with support from the NASA Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Destinations Program to succeed the International Space Station at the end of this decade and provide ongoing low-Earth orbit research capabilities. At OSU, Abby leads university research initiatives that develop cutting edge space research pipelines spanning engineering, physics, materials science, bioastronautics, agriculture, medicine, and other fields. Concurrent with this position, Abby is pursuing a PhD in Biophysics at OSU where she studies reactivation of human pathogenic viruses under the stress conditions of a spaceflight environment. Previously, Abby completed a MSc as a Graduate Research Fellow at Queen’s University studying Arctic region biogeochemistry in the Facility for Biogeochemical Research on Environmental Change and the Cryosphere (FaBRECC) lab and a BA in biology from Wellesley College. In addition, Abby has conducted immunology/neuroscience research at Harvard Medical School, astrobiology research at the Space Life Sciences Labs, machine learning research at Wellesley College, and limnology research at Lake Baikal, Siberia. Abby has had a passion for space exploration her entire life and is working towards becoming a NASA astronaut. At 15 years old, Abby served as the Earth Liaison for European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, helping to share his experiences living and working in space with people on Earth. She then went on to found and lead The Mars Generation non-profit for 7 years. Under her leadership, this organization reached tens of millions of people with digital science content, engaged more than 2,000 students in a student leadership development program, secured hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide hands-on STEM experiences for young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and aided teachers around the world in developing and delivering space and science curriculum in grade school classrooms. In 2019, Abby was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for her innovative education advocacy work with The Mars Generation. Abby is the author of Dream Big: How to Reach for Your Stars, a book that guides young people in developing the skills necessary to achieve their dreams. Recently Abby was a member of the teaching team for the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, where she mentored undergraduate students in designing research to fly on the International Space Station. Abby is a prolific public speaker and staunch advocate for the future of space exploration and STEM education. She has delivered hundreds of presentations on these subjects, ranging from grade school audiences to the US House of Representatives. In 2024, Abby received the prestigious commercial space industry Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship and worked as an engineering intern at the commercial space company Voyager Technologies, during which she contributed to testing the Sierra Space Dream Chaser spaceplane, improving laser communications systems for the International Space Station, and the development of the Starlab commercial space station.

Abby has trained as a pilot, Rescue SCUBA Diver, and Emergency Medical Technician and is always searching for her next adventure. Abby has studied Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Spanish and is passionate about all types of collaboration in the space industry, including international and private/public sectors. In her free time she creates educational videos and content on social media to excite more people about space and science. You can join Abby on her journey to become an astronaut by following her at @astronautabbyofficial.