Prof Chris. Welch

Prof Chris. Welch is Director of MSc Programs at the International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg, France. He has a PhD in spacecraft engineering from Cranfield University in the United Kingdom – where he is also adjunct faculty – and an MSc in space physics from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. His research interests include space propulsion, space exploration and microgravity physics. He is a Chartered Physicist and Member of the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Engineering and Technology (and a member of its Aerospace Network Executive Committee) and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Dr Welch has also served as a special advisor on two government enquiries into UK space policy.

In 1989, Dr Welch was one of the final 20 candidates to fly to the Mir space station on the UK-USSR Juno mission, which continues to fuel his passion for human spaceflight and space education and outreach. He is former chair of the UK’s Space Education Council and is Vice Chair (formerly Chair) of the International Astronautical Federation Space and Education and Outreach Committee. He is a Council Member of the British Interplanetary Society, is a subject editor for its journal, JBIS and is also on the board of the World Space Week Association, and a trustee of the Spacelink Learning Foundation and the Arts Catalyst. In 2007 he was Scientist in Residence at National Museum of Childhood in London, in 2009 he won the Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Achievement in Space Education and in 2011 he chaired YuriGagarin50 in the UK.

He is a frequent commentator on space and astronautics, has made more than 300 television and radio broadcasts and has also advised on a number of space-related television programs and films. When not being an engineer, he takes idiosyncratic photographs, tries to write poetry and has authored what he believes to be the first-ever paper on extraterrestrial garden design.