B612 Advisory Board

Dr. Galitsky is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Almaz Capital Partners, a Cisco-backed venture capital firm specializing in US-Russian investments. The company successfully invested in Yandex, QIK (acquired by Skype), Parallels, and Vyatta, among others.‘Sasha’ is an internationally recognized technology entrepreneur and inventor who was one of the youngest technical executives in the Soviet space industry, with responsibility for computer information and low orbit data communication systems. In the early ‘90s, Alexander founded and led five successful technology companies with operations in the US, Russia and Western Europe. He pioneered ELVIS+ in WiFi technology development and product development of FireWall and VPN products for the global market with Sun Microsystems. With TrustWorks, he became a “Technology Pioneer” at the Davos World Economic Forum 2000.Dr. Galitsky is recognized as a key influence in the modern Russian IT/Internet industry by major media, including Forbes magazine, and has received numerous high-tech industry awards. In 2010, he was appointed to the Board of the Skolkovo Foundation, the key innovation project of the Russian Federation.

A recipient of an Emmy and Humanitas awards, Alex Singer has directed five feature films and more than 280 television shows, spanning a successful career of more than 40 years.He has directed and lectured in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe, and has taught both production and directing at universities and other institutions, including a 17-week course at USC’s School of Electrical Engineering. For the National Research Council, he published two white papers: “Convergence of Computers, Telecommunications and Entertainment” and “Defense Modeling and Simulation Organization and the Entertainment Industry.” The NRC later designated Singer a lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, Singer presented at three DARPA Information Science and Technology study groups: “Building a Time Machine”; “Total Recall: Combining Human and Digital Memory,” and “Augmented Cognition,” – the last evolving into a short dramatic film: “The Future of Augmented Cognition.” As part of the three-volume published examination of their research, DARPA asked Singer to write a chapter about virtual environment training in the year 2057, using the story-telling metaphor of Star Trek’s Holodeck.

Award-winning science journalist and space historian Andrew Chaikin has authored books and articles about space exploration and astronomy for more than three decades.Writer-director and explorer James Cameron (Titanic, Aliens of the Deep) has called him “our best historian of the space age.” He is the author of A Man on the Moon, a detailed description of the Apollo missions to the moon., which formed the basis of the From the Earth to the Moon 12-part HBO television miniseries.Andy has served as executive editor for space and science at Space.com, and is a former editor of Sky and Telescope magazine.He grew up in Great Neck, NY, and, while studying geology at Brown University, worked at NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Viking Mars landing.

Carolyn Shoemaker is an American astronomer and the co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. She holds the record for most comets discovered by an individual. Shoemaker started her astronomical career in 1980, searching for Earth-crossing asteroids and comets at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the Palomar Observatory.In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Shoemaker used film taken by the wide-field telescope at the Palomar Observatory, combined with a stereoscope, to find objects that moved against the background of fixed stars. As of 2002, Shoemaker had discovered 32 comets and more than 800 asteroids (counting the as-yet unnumbered ones).

Dick Bingham has a distinguished career in finance and is a recognized philanthropist in the San Francisco community. As Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the California Academy of Sciences from January 1996 to July 2007, he led the institution during its key formative years as Founding Chair of the New Academy.He also has served as a Trustee of the Town School, the Urban School and Middlesex School and as a member of the Board of the San Francisco Committee on Jobs.Currently, Dick serves as a Board Member of The Bay School of San Francisco, and a Trustee of the World Affairs Council of Northern California, and the California Pacific Medical Center Foundation. He also is past Honorary Consul of Lithuania. With a 28-year distinguished career in, finance Dick Bingham was a senior executive with Kuhn Loeb and Lehman Brothers and led the divisions of Investment Banking, Corporate Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions as well as served as a member of the Board of both firms.In 1989, he founded the private equity firm, American Industrial Partners, where he currently serves as President and CEO. Dick Bingham attended the University of Geneva, College of European des Sciences Socials et Economique de University de Paris, and graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Business School, and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy.

Dr. Prunariu works for the Romanian Space Agency as an expert within the Airspace Consulting Association. He was elected Chairman of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) for the period of June 2010-June 2012, and serves as President of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) and ASE Europe.Since 1995, Prunariu has served as Vice President of the European Institute for Risk, Security and Communication Management (EURISC), and in 2004, became the President of the Romanian Space Agency.From 2004-2006, he also served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to the Russian Federation. Prunariu is a full member of the International Academy of Astronautics. In 2012 he was appointed one of the 15 Group of Governmental Experts on outer space transparency and confidence-building measures, established by the UN General Assembly Resolution 65/68. Prunariu has co-authored of several books on space technology and space flight and has presented/published numerous scientific papers.His Ph.D. thesis produced new developments in the field of space flight dynamics. Prunariu earned a degree in aerospace engineering from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest.

Freeman Dyson is a retired professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Two papers he published on the foundations of quantum electrodynamics have had a lasting influence on many branches of modern physics.Today, he continues work in condensed-matter physics, statistical mechanics, nuclear engineering, climate studies, astrophysics and biology. Beyond his professional work in physics, Freeman Dyson has a keen awareness of the human side of science and of the human consequences of technology.He is the author of: “Disturbing the Universe”, “Weapons and Hope”, “Infinite in All Directions”, “The Sun, the Genome and the Internet”, “The Scientist as Rebel” and “A Many-colored Glass”. In 2000, he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

Irwin Shapiro, the former Director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has had a very localized geographical career – all in Cambridge – but has wandered widely in research, from study of the core of the Earth, through remote-sensing exploration of the solar system, to observation of the most distant known objects in the universe. He also originated and carried out solar-system tests of the general theory of relativity. The common thread tying these various topics together is his use of radio or radar techniques in all of these efforts.

Julian Nott is one of the world's leading balloon scientists, designers and pilots. He is a consultant to national government, space agencies and commercial organizations alike and is a sought after speaker and published author. Nott has worked on a remarkably wide range of advance projects and set 81 world ballooning records. He was the first person to build and fly a "Pumpkin Balloon", which has subsequently been developed by NASA to carry scientific instruments for 100 days at 120,000 feet. He is currently advising the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in developing balloons which will travel to Saturn by rocket and be launched into the atmosphere of its fascinating moon, Titan. He recently flew a working scale prototype balloon in a chamber of his own design at minus 180° Celsius, the temperature of Titan's atmosphere. He is also working on balloons for Venus, the other solar system destination where balloons have great scientific potential. His involvement with space scientists through these projects triggered his interest in planetary exploration in general and "Sentinel" in particular. Born in England, Nott is a graduate of Oxford University and has both United States and United Kingdom citizenship. He is a long-standing consultant to The NASA Balloon Program Office, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and to Caltech and holds an appointment at the University of California Santa Barbara.

Ken Ford is co-founder and CEO of the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) — a not-for-profit research institute with locations in Pensacola and Ocala Florida. IHMC is home to world-class scientists and engineers investigating a broad range of topics related to building technological systems aimed at amplifying and extending human cognitive and perceptual capacities.Dr. Ford is the author/editor of hundreds of scientific papers and six books. Ford’s research interests include: AI, cognitive science, human-centered computing, and entrepreneurship in government and academia. Dr. Ford is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and has received many awards and honors including the Doctor Honoris Causas from the University of Bordeaux and the 2008 Robert Englemore Memorial Award for his work in artificial intelligence.In 2002, President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Ford to serve on the National Science Board and the United States Senate confirmed his nomination in March of 2003. In 2005, Dr. Ford was appointed and sworn in as a member of the Air Force Science Advisory Board.In 2007, Dr. Ford became a member of the NASA Advisory Council and in 2008, he was named as Chairman — a capacity in which he served until 2011. In 2010, he was awarded NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal. In 2012, he was named to the Defense Science Board.

Martin Rees is England’s Astronomer Royal, and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He has conducted extensive research on black holes, space astronomy, and cosmology.He also writes and lectures widely to general audiences. His books include: ‘Before the Beginning’, ‘Just Six Numbers’, ‘Gravity’s Fatal Attraction’, ‘Our Final Hour’ and (just published) ‘From Here to Infinity: a Vision of 21st Century Science’.

Nancy Conrad created the Conrad Foundation in 2008 to energize and engage students in science and technology through unique entrepreneurial opportunities. The organization’s flagship program, the Spirit of Innovation Challenge, is a global competition challenging students to combine education, innovation and entrepreneurship to create products that address real-world challenges and global sustainability. By enabling young minds to connect education, innovation and entrepreneurship, the Foundation helps provide a bold platform for enriching the innovative workforce of the future.Ms. Conrad has been a featured speaker at national and international conferences. Her presentations include TED, the Legatum Institute at MIT, the Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit, and the Global Competiveness Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She also presented at the Global Diversity Leadership Conference at Harvard University and the National Modeling and Simulation Coalition conference. As a leader in transformative education, she has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology detailing how the Conrad Foundation exemplifies the use of partnership and mentorship to improve STEM education. She is currently the education partner for the SonUS Solar Sail Sun Jammer project as well Inspiration Mars project, and on the advisory board for the B612 Foundation.Ms. Conrad also serves as a founding partner of the Global Patient Safety Team Advisory Board. Other notable organizations Ms Conrad is affiliated with include STEM Education Coalition, STEMconnector, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, the Presidential Scholars and she serves on the Social Enterprise Governing Board, Columbia University. She is on the Patient Engagement Board of the Global Patient Safety Team with other global leaders focused on dramatic reduction of preventable harm. She is featured in the TMIT-Discovery Channel film Surfing the Healthcare Tsunami: Bring Your Best Board.Ms Conrad is a recipient of the Thomas Jefferson High School 2011 Tommy Award for her significant contributions to STEM education. In 2012, U.S. News and STEMconnector named Ms Conrad as one of 100 Top Women Leaders in STEM and inducted her into the 100 Top Women Leaders in STEM Hall of Fame.

Since 2001, Phil Lader has served as Chairman of WPP plc, the world’s largest advertising/marketing company. He is also a Senior Adviser to Morgan Stanley and a Director of Marathon Oil, AES and Rusal Corporations. From 1997 to 2001, he served as the US Ambassador to the Court of St. James. Phil Lader has held numerous senior level positions in the US Government, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Deputy Director of the Office of Mgmt. & Budget, and Administrator of the US Small Business Administration.Phil Lader is a trustee of the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the Atlantic Council and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University, received an M.A. in History from the University of Michigan, completed graduate law studies at Pembroke College, Oxford University, and received the J.D. from Harvard Law School. He was the West Professor of International Studies at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, and was chairman of the Board of Visitors of Duke University’s Sanford Institute of Public Policy.Lader has been awarded honorary doctorates by 14 universities. The Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce awarded him the 2001 Benjamin Franklin Medal for his contributions to trans-Atlantic relations, and he received the Rotary International Foundation’s 2007 Global Service to Humanity Award.

Roger Blandford is a native of England and took his BA, MA and PhD degrees at Cambridge University. Following postdoctoral research at Cambridge, Princeton and UC/Berkeley, he took up a faculty position at Caltech in 1976, where he was appointed as the Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics in 1989.In 2003, he moved to Stanford University to become the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and the Luke Blossom Chair in the School of Humanities and Science. His research interests include black hole astrophysics, cosmology, gravitational lensing, cosmic ray physics and compact stars. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences.He recently chaired a two-year National Academy of Sciences Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Joining Menlo Ventures in 2011, Shervin is focused on the social web, consumer Internet and mobile systems. He also serves on the board, and works closely with Machine Zone, Uber, Fab, Warby Parker, Shaker, and Mr. Number, and has led Menlo’s investment in Tumblr.Shervin also helped launch the Menlo Talent Fund, a new $20m seed fund. Before joining Menlo, Shervin was Chief Application Officer and GM at Mozilla Corporation, after spending most of his career as a serial entrepreneur and angel investor.During his career, he has raised more than $50m for companies which have reached an aggregate of 100 million users: Webs.com (sold to Vistaprint), Social Gaming Network (merged with Mindjolt), and Hyperoffice.In addition, he has angel-invested in more than 40 companies including Klout, Voxer, Aardvark (sold to Google), Blakjet, Dollar Shave Club, Branchout (advisor), Talent House, Gowalla (sold to Facebook), Milo.com (sold to eBay), TaskRabbit, Milk (sold to Google), Rapportive (sold to Linkedin), Likealittle (LAL), Qwiki, Votizen, Yobongo (sold to Mixbook), SpruceMedia, Medialets and SolveMedia. Shervin serves on the advisory board of Comscore.Shervin is one of 10 members of the UN Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council, and serves as an Entrepreneurial Ambassador on several State Department delegations as well as at the President’s Summit on Entrepreneurship. He was chosen by the US Government as an Outstanding American by Choice – one of only 100 naturalized Americans to be chosen since the beginning of the award. Giving back is very important to Shervin and is the reason he dedicates time to traveling abroad to Africa to volunteer with Invisible Children and charity:water. Shervin is a graduate of the University of California (BA, Interdisciplinary Studies Field Major), a published researcher in JAMA and Neuroscience Letters and the author of several US patents.

Steve joined USVP in 1985, with a background in information technology, and many years of operating experience with NASA and a number of Silicon Valley start-ups. His primary focus is security and “big data” software.Steve led USVP investments in Accelerated Networks (IPO), Applied Digital Access (IPO), Centerview Software (acquired by Sybase), CipherTrust (acquired by Secure Computing), Elantec (IPO), Guidewire (IPO), Imperva (IPO), MicroLinear (IPO), Occam Networks (Public), Savings.com (acquired by Cox), Sierra Monolithics (acquired by Semtech), Verity (IPO), Vontu (acquired by Symantec) and Xylan (IPO). He also co-led USVP’s investments in Check Point Software (IPO), Harmonic Lightwaves (IPO), Epic Design (IPO), NetDynamics (acquired by SUN); New Focus (IPO) and Stratacom (IPO), and managed the firm’s investments in and board seats for Appthority, Blekko, Electric Cloud, Karmasphere, Quixey, ReadyForce, Smartling, Trusteer and Xirrus.Previously, Steve served on the board of the Woodside Priory and was Treasurer of the National Venture Capital Association. He’s currently a Board Member of the World Affairs Council, Stanford GSB Trust and DAPER. Steve Krausz earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Stanford Business School, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Stewart is a Co-Founder of GBN, and President of The Long Now Foundation, an organization that promotes long-term thinking by exploring “whatever may be helpful for thinking, understanding, and acting responsibly over long periods of time.” He is perhaps best known as the founder, editor, and publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog and the creator of The WELL, which now has 11,000 active users worldwide and is considered a bellwether of the genre. Since 1989, he has served on the board of the Santa Fe Institute, an organization dedicated to multi-disciplinary research in the sciences of complexity.He is also a founding member of the board of directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Stewart is the author of many pioneering books, including The Whole Earth Catalogues (1968-1985), The Clock of the Long Now (1999) and The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT (1987). His book How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built has been dubbed “a classic and possibly a work of genius” and has been used as a text by computer systems designers as well as building preservers, architects, and many lay building users.In his new book Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto (2009), Stewart offers an eloquent, deeply researched argument for why his fellow environmentalists (and the rest of us) must embrace urbanization, nuclear power, and biotechnology in order to create a sustainable future.

Taghi Amirani studied physics at Nottingham University. For his final year project, instead of doing something in the lab, he made Shades of Black, a documentary about an imaginary journey into a black hole. While completing a postgraduate film and TV course at University of Bristol, he made Mechanics of Love, a low-budget B&W silent comedy. This charming but somewhat over ambitious homage to Buster Keaton via Woody Allen landed him his first job at UK’s Thames TV as a researcher working on educational design and technology documentaries. In 1989 he made his directorial debut with Earth Calling Basingstoke, a warm quirky look at the extraterrestrial lives of English amateur astronomers. Basingstoke, made for British Channel 4′s flagship science series Equinox, was received with critical acclaim and launched Taghi as a director. He has since made nearly 40 films, two fiction shorts, and a handful of commercials. He founded Amirani Media in 1993. In 1994 he was asked by the BBC to make The Jupiter Collision documenting the historic impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into planet Jupiter. The films followed the discoverers of the comet with the Hubble team at the Space Telescope Science Institute during impact week.Taghi has been a jury member at the International Emmys, Royal Television Society, One World Media Awards and Sheffield International Documentary Festival where he is also a member of the Advisory Committee. In 2009, he was awarded a TED Fellowship followed by a TED Senior Fellowship in 2010.

Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. O’Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, the Web 2.0 Summit, Strata: The Business of Data, and many others. O’Reilly’s Make: Magazine and Maker Faire have been compared to the West Coast Computer Faire, which launched the personal computer revolution.Tim’s blog, the O’Reilly Radar “watches the alpha geeks” to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim is also a partner at O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, O’Reilly’s early stage venture firm, and is on the board of Safari Books Online.

In his 11 years with NASA, Tom Jones flew on four space shuttle missions, working and living in space for 53 days. He also conducted three spacewalks to install the centerpiece of the International Space Station, the American Destiny laboratory. He is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and earned a Doctorate in Planetary Sciences from the University of Arizona.Tom has piloted B-52D strategic bombers, studied asteroids for NASA, engineered intelligence-gathering systems for the CIA, and helped develop advanced mission concepts to explore the solar system.He has authored and co-authored numerous publications and papers, including Planetology: Unlocking the Secrets of the Solar System, and Hell Hawks! a true story of an aerial band of brothers in WWII, which is the top-selling title at the National Air and Space Museum. Dr. Jones has served on the NASA Advisory Council and is a board member of the Association of Space Explorers.