Full-time Faculty
(Ph.D., RAND Graduate School; Professor of Practice in International Affairs, Elliott School) is the Director of the Space Policy Institute. His research interests include civil, commercial, and national security space policy. From 2005-2008, he served as the Associate Administrator for Program Analysis and Evaluation at NASA. Prior to NASA, Dr. Pace was the Assistant Director for Space and Aeronautics in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
(Ph.D., Temple University; J.D., George Washington University) is a Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs at The Elliott School, and an adjunct Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School. His research interests include economic and legal issues of space policy, commercial uses of space technologies, technology policy, innovation and technology transfer, microeconomic analysis and administrative law.
(Ph.D., New York University) is Professor Emeritus at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where he was the founder and long-time director of GW’s Space Policy Institute. Dr. Logsdon’s research interests focus on the policy and historical aspects of U.S. and international space activities. He is author, among many articles, essays, and edited books, of the award-winning studies John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (2010); After Apollo? Richard Nixon and the American Space Program (2015); and Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier (2019). Dr. Logsdon was general editor of the seven-volume series Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program (1995-2008) and of The Penguin Book of Outer Space Exploration (2018). Dr. Logsdon is a member of the Board of Directors of the Planetary Society. In 2003 he was a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, and formerly was a member of the NASA Advisory Council. He is a sought-after commentator on space issues by the electronic and print media.
Pascale Ehrenfreund is Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs at the Space Policy Institute/George Washington University in Washington DC and the President of the Committee of Space research (COSPAR). She serves on the Board of Directors of the Space Foundation and is Co-chair of the Global Future Council on Space of the World Economic Forum. Since three decades she contributed as Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator and Teamleader to ESA and NASA astronomy and planetary missions as well as experiments in low Earth orbit and on the International Space Station. Pascale Ehrenfreund served as the President of the International Space University (ISU) (2021-2023), the President of the International Astronautical Federation (2019-2022), the Chair of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) (2015-2020) and the President of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (2013-2015). Pascale Ehrenfreund is enlisted in the Stanford World Ranking Top 2% Scientists 2022 and holds a Master degree in Molecular Biology, a PhD in Astrophysics, and a Master degree in Management & Leadership. The asteroid “9826 Ehrenfreund 2114 T-3” bears her name.
(Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University) is an assistant professor of history and international affairs. Trained as a historian of science and technology, his interests lie at the nexus of science, technology, and international security. Specifically, Aaron’s research investigates how science and technology have shaped foreign policy, nuclear strategy, alliance dynamics, and arms control. His scholarship has explored many of these themes through the lens of the space age during the Cold War. Aaron’s first book, Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defense Initiative, is an international history of Ronald Reagan’s controversial Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), more popularly known as “Star Wars.” Using recently declassified documents, he situates SDI within intensifying U.S. – Soviet military space competition in the final two decades of the Cold War that emerged as détente collapsed. He also details SDI’s enduring consequences for arms control and its connections with resurgent anxieties about an arms race in space. Aaron’s second book project uses an infrastructural lens to explore how the nuclear age shaped U.S. global information networks that served as the ‘connective tissue’ of American power. He details both the technological and political challenges associated with developing and maintaining information networks stretching from under the ocean and into outer space. This project also investigates the politics of basing U.S. information hardware, such as satellite ground stations, in the Global South to reveal how decolonization shaped this infrastructure. This work is rooted in the historiographies of technology, diplomacy, and decolonization and engages with the security studies scholarship in political science. An article drawn from this book project can be accessed here. Aaron’s peer-reviewed work has been published in the Journal of Strategic Studies, Diplomacy & Statecraft, Intelligence and National Security, the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, and Science & Diplomacy. His policy commentary has been published in Foreign Affairs, Engelsberg Ideas, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Physics Today, and War on the Rocks. Aaron received his PhD in history of science from Johns Hopkins University. While in graduate school he held a Guggenheim predoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He has completed multiple intensive Russian-language courses in the United States and the Russian Federation. Prior to his doctoral studies, Aaron served as a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer.
Part-Time Faculty
(Ph.D., Tufts University) is a Senior Space Policy Analyst with Falcon Research supporting the Principal Department of Defense Space Advisor Staff where he helps to develop and implement space policy and strategy initiatives. Dr. Hays holds a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School and was an honor graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. He served internships at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and National Space Council. Hays previously taught space policy courses at the United States Air Force Academy School of Advanced Airpower Studies and National Defense University. His major publications include Handbook of Space Security, Space and Security, and Toward a Theory of Spacepower.
Dr. Matthew Jenkins
(Ph.D., Institute of World Politics) instructs the undergraduate course “Space Policy.” Dr. Matthew “Matt” Jenkins has more than 19 years of space experience in everything from acquisition, policy, congressional affairs, launch, operations, and disposal. His research has focused on rendezvous and proximity operations policy objectives to shape global norms of behavior in this area.
Dr. John J. Klein
(Ph.D., University of Reading) instructs the undergraduate course “Space in International Affairs.” He is a senior fellow and strategist at Falcon Research, Inc. and supports the Department of Defense develop and implement space policy and strategy. He routinely writes on spacepower theory, space strategy, deterrence, and the Law of Armed Conflict. Dr. Klein holds a master’s in Aeronautical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School, a master’s in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, and a Ph.D. in Strategic Studies from the University of Reading in England. He is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. He is the author of the books Understanding Space Strategy: The Art of War in Space (2019) and Space Warfare: Strategy, Principles and Policy (2006).
Faculty Associates
(Ph.D., University of Wisconsin) is the Director of the Public Policy Ph.D. Program, as well as a Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Public Administration, and International Affairs. His research interests include public finance, taxation, and corporate financial policy. He is also the acting Director of Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at the George Washington University (GW-TSPPPA).
(Ph.D., Tel Aviv University) is the Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Neurological Surgery at the George Washington University. He received the M.Sc. degree with honors (focus area: Electric Propulsion) from Kharkov Aviation Institute, Kharkov, Ukraine, in 1989 and the Ph.D. degree from Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1997 (focus area: Plasma Engineering). He was a Fulbright Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, a Research Associate with Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and a Research Scientist and Adjunct Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research concerns advanced spacecraft propulsion, plasma-based nanotechnology, and plasma medicine. He has authored over 210 journal articles and author of textbook “Plasma Engineering: from Aerospace and Nano and Bio technology” (Elsevier, March 2013). He received Hegarty Innovation Prize, Distinguished Researcher Award. Physics of Plasmas selects 2001 paper on Hall thruster as one of its most cited papers in the 50 years of its publishing. Prof. Keidar serves as an Academic Editor of the AIP Advances, Editor-in-chief of Graphene, a member of Editorial Board of Scientific Reports (Nature) and many other journals. He is Director of GW Institute for Nanotechnology. He is Fellow of American Physical Society (APS), Associate Fellow of AIAA.
(Ph.D., Political Science, University of Washington, 1990) is a Professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs with appointments in the School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) and the Elliott School of International Affairs (ESIA). In 2016-17, Livingston is a senior fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University. He is also a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution’s program in Governance Studies and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. In the spring of 2017, he will be a visiting professor of political science at St. Gallen University in Switzerland. His research centers on the role of technology in governance and the provisioning of public goods, including human security and rights. Among other publications, Livingston has written When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina (W. Lance Bennett and Regina Lawrence, co-authors) (University of Chicago Press, 2007). With Gregor Walter-Drop he edited Bits and Atoms: Information and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited Statehood (Oxford University Press, 2014), Africa’s Evolving Infosystems: A Pathway to Security and Stability (NDU Press, 2011) and Africa’s Information Revolution: Implications for Crime, Policing, and Citizen Security (NDU Press, 2013). He has also written several policy papers on commercial remote sensing satellites. Over the last decade, Livingston has worked and traveled to over 50 countries, mostly in Africa and South America, but also to Iraq and Afghanistan on several occasions.
(Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is a Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering and of International Affairs at The George Washington University. She studies the design and development of complex systems, primarily in the aerospace and defense sectors. Her work considers both the organization and technical system architectures to “design-in” an ability to achieve performance goals across extended and highly uncertain operational lifetimes. Recent projects examine the nature and function of scientific and technical expertise in the design process, particularly in the context of open innovation. Dr. Szajnfarber holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Systems and dual S.M. degrees in Aeronautics & Astronautics and Technology Policy, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A.Sc. degree in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto. Outside of Academia she has worked as a systems engineer at Dynacon and MDA Space Missions, and a technology and innovation policy advisor for the European Space Agency and NASA.
Administrative Staff
George Leaua
George Leaua is the Program Associate to the Space Policy Institute and the Institute for International Science & Technology Policy. George received his BA in International Affairs and MA in International Science and Technology Policy from the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. During his studies, George worked for the Nuclear Energy Agency at the OECD in Paris, the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations in NYC, and the Romanian Embassy in Washington, DC. Before joining SPI and IISTP, he worked as an independent consultant and a researcher for the Swiss Institute for Alternative Thinking, focusing on technological opportunities for the development of small states, and Artificial Intelligence innovations. Previously, he worked as a project manager for G-SPACE, Inc., enabling the business development and government relations projects of the AI-powered space start-up. In his spare time, George loves to cook new dishes from around the world.
Masatoshi “Toshi” Ebara
Masatoshi “Toshi” Ebara is the Staff Assistant(2024-2025) for the Space Policy Institute.
Currently first-year graduate student at the Space Policy Institute with a background in Space/Defense Systems Engineering and Business Development. He works as Executive Professional for NEC Corporation in Japan. He is a 17+ years expert on Space Systems Project Management and Systems Engineering in the areas of Interplanetary Explorers, LEO EO satellites, and LEO communication constellations. He also has 6+ year experience in Space utilization, like commercial satellite imagery sales, missile defense and SSA(Space Situational Awareness). He has a Master’s degree in Astronomy at the University of Tokyo and did his academic research as a JAXA project member, which helped him hold a Scientist mindset. Toshi’s primary goal is to find a way for the Government, Academia, and Industry to speak the same language. Therefore, his research will cover the best practices of Space International cooperation, Diplomacy drivers, and R&D policy to handle innovative new technology. His main focus will be, how the private sector can contribute to these efforts.
