Plenary Lectures
Dr. Raz Itzhaki
Down to Earth – Space Entrepreneurship as a driver to Space Exploration
The lecture will delve into the transformative role of entrepreneurship in advancing space exploration. This lecture aims to equip emerging entrepreneurs and researchers with actionable insights and strategies for founding successful space-related ventures. Emphasizing the mitigation of high risks associated with space products, it will outline how integrating government and industrial partnership or tapping into vast market opportunities through global satellite constellations can create substantial value. Furthermore, the session will explore the dynamic interplay between academia and the space industry, illustrating through real-world examples how these sectors can synergistically collaborate for mutual benefit. Additionally, Dr. Itzhaki will demonstrate the various funding and development cycles crucial for space ventures, using the Israeli market as a specific case study.
About Dr. Raz Itzhaki
As the founder and Managing Partner of Orbit Catapult, Dr. Raz Itzhaki has been at the forefront of Israel’s burgeoning space technology sector. With a deep expertise in aerospace engineering and computer science, Dr. Itzhaki brings over 30 years of experience in leading innovative space tech ventures.
Orbit Catapult Fund, under his leadership, is a pioneering venture capital firm dedicated to propelling Israeli space technologies into global markets. The fund specifically focuses on pre-seed and seed investments, leveraging Israel’s unique position as a hub of space innovation. With an annual commitment to launching satellites, the fund provides crucial early-stage support, including space launch coordination and mentorship, thereby accelerating technology validation and facilitating rapid company growth.
Previously, Dr. Itzhaki served as the CEO of NSLComm and Beetlesat, where he directed multiple landmark projects, including the launch of innovative satellite systems. His tenure as Nano-Satellites Department Manager at Israel Aerospace Industries saw him contribute to over 10 satellite missions, emphasizing his role as a key figure in Israel’s space industry.
Dr. Itzhaki’s academic credentials include a PhD in Computer Science from the Hebrew University and a Master’s in Aerospace Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He is also a respected author, with multiple publications in the fields of aerospace and satellite technologies.
Professor Colin Price
Satellites are the “heroes” of climate change research
Climate change is real. Global temperatures are rising, sea level is rising, and rainfall patterns are changing. The weather is becoming more extreme, and decisions about the causes of these changes and future scenarios need to be based on scientific data and scientific research. But vast regions of the globe are uninhabited (polar regions, oceans, deserts, rainforests) with no surface data from these regions. Therefore, before the satellite era we lacked important evidence of what was happening in those isolated parts of our planet. But in the last 45 years key scientific evidence that our climate is changing has come primarily from satellite measurements. Changes in ocean temperatures, sea and land ice changes, changes in the biosphere, sea level, etc, are now readily avaialble to the public and scientists due to the constellations of Earth-observing satellites orbiting our planet. These satellite observations from space are key to monitoring the Earth’s changing climate today, and provide long term data for scientific research to understand how we are impacting our climate, while also providing key evidence for policymakers and world leaders about the urgency of acting on climate change. In this talk examples of the role of satellite observations will be provided, with ways these data are used by policy makers.
About Professor Colin Price
Prof. Colin Price is a Full Professor in the Department of Geophysics in the Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Tel Aviv University.
He is an Atmospheric Physicist, specializing in the Earth’s weather and climate, with a focus on lightning, thunderstorms, climate change, and natural hazards. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1962. After starting his university studies in South Africa, he transferred to Tel Aviv University in 1982 where he completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences. He received his Ph.D. at Columbia University, New York, in 1993, while working at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, he returned to Israel and joined the faculty of Tel Aviv University in 1995. He has published more than 170 scientific papers and has a team of 10 graduate students and researchers working under his guidance on various scientific research projects. He heads the Tel Aviv University Climate Crisis Initiative (PlanNet Zero) looking for innovative multidisciplinary solutions for the climate crisis. He is the Israeli national representative to IUGG, IAMAS, and SCOSTEP.
