David Dangoor CBE
Honorary President
Dangoor Education provides opportunities across the learning spectrum with sponsorship of Westminster Academy, Open University Massive Open Online Courses, STEM university scholarships, the Dangoor Centre for Medical Education at the Royal Society of Medicine and the Dangoor Centre for Personalised Medicine at Bar Ilan University. Dangoor Education’s sponsorship of the UK, EU Space Design Competition and Galactic Challenges builds on the fantastic legacy of Sir Naim Dangoor, who supported the Competition for a number of years.
Marcus du Sautoy FRS, OBE
Patron
Is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Formerly a Fellow of All Souls College, and Wadham College, he is now a Fellow of New College. He was previously President of the Mathematical Association, an EPSRC Senior Media Fellow and a Royal Society University Research Fellow. His academic work concerns mainly group theory and number theory. In October 2008, he was appointed to the Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science, succeeding the inaugural holder Richard Dawkins.
Dr Randall Perry
Founder, Honorary Chair
Dr Perry founded the charity, Space Science Engineering Foundation (to be become known as SSE²F, E² adding “environmental”). The charity runs an array of STEM activities, such as the EnviroDC, within the UK and in the EU, Africa, and other international students. Dr Perry was a Royal Society Fellow at Imperial College London when he held the first design settlement event in 2008-9. An alumnus of the University of Washington, Dr Perry has held the US and Canada National Science Foundation Fellowship at Oxford University. His current focus is on education for students as potential industry professionals, utilising STEM.
Shayne Beegadhur
Trustee Chair
Shayne is currently Spacecraft Operations Engineer at In-Space Missions. From competitor in SSEF competitions to a contributor to Space industry, Shayne’s story is an example of the impact we have on student’s lives. He joined us as a competitor in the UKSDC in 2016 and represented the EU and UK at the ISSDC in 2017 and 2018. He gained a lifelong appreciation for learning through action and the technical, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills required to solve truly complex problems.
He graduated with a first in Aeronautical Engineering MEng from Loughborough University in 2023. His early career has been filled with a breadth of engineering experiences developing drones, ships, submarines, orbital-class rockets and spacecraft at university and within industry. He is a Director of Engineering at Conex Research, an international thinktank creating novel space missions using emergent technology within the space sector. His summers are spent supporting the GSDC and running the Engineering Programme for ProEd et al, which supports the charity.
Jeremy Curtis
Trustee
Jeremy is an engineer by training and has spent most of his career working in space. He led the UK Space Agency’s education programme using space to inspire interest in STEM subjects and addressing the skills needs of the UK space sector. This included activities to support Tim
Peake’s mission to the ISS, which reached three million young people and a third of all schools across the UK.
He has also chaired the ESERO-UK Steering Group and the Organising Committee of the UK Space Conference. He has represented the UK on the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, helping to develop the Global Exploration Strategy, and led several major government reviews of microgravity and space exploration.
Dr Helen Oliver
Trustee (Safeguarding)
Helen Oliver is a Research Associate in the Networks and Operating Systems Group at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. She has been volunteering as a Judge and Technical Expert with the UKSDC since 2011, when she was working in the Design Engineering Group at Imperial College London. She has been a Judge at the International Finals at both NASA Johnson and NASA Kennedy. She is the original developer of designVUE, a concept mapping software application for capturing design rationale which was subsequently used in a project at NASA Ames to analyze a case study of system failure. Her current research interests include the Internet of Things, personal data stores and privacy by design, and wearable technology.
Dr Elizabeth Luthman
Founding Trustee
Liz first became involved with the Space Competition in 2010 as a technical expert in Space Structures. She was an integral part of the original founding team for the SSE²F. She graduated from the University of Bristol in 2007 with an MEng in Aerospace Engineering and has spent the last three years as an aeronautics researcher at Imperial College. Her PhD was in hypersonics (very high speed aerodynamics). She is currently at California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) and JPL. When she’s not working, Liz enjoys hiking, writing stories, drawing in London’s various museums and learning Japanese. Liz was also the organising chair for the 2011 UK Competition.
Louis Lyle
Trustee & Treasurer
Louis is a Mathematics and Statistics Graduate from the University of York. Louis is a past participant in the UKSDC and ISSDC, and was invited to join the UKSDC board in 2015. Since then he has held a number of roles in the competition from judge, to CEO, to technical advisor. In March 2023 he joined the Space Science Engineering & Environmental Foundation as a trustee. Louis is the Senior General Ledger Accountant at BAFTA and is in charge of managing the budgets for the Games and Craft Awards, as well as BAFTA’s branches in Scotland and Wales.
Professor Richard Ghail
Trustee
Richard Ghail is currently a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London. He has served for several years as a trustee and Chair of the SSE²F. Before moving to Royal Holloway he was a lecturer in Engineering Geology, based in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. His research interests are in The London Basin Forum, Intraplate Processes and the Neotectonics of Great Britain, Plate Tectonics of Buoyant Lithospheres and EnVision.
Jenny Lyons
CEO
Jenny Lyons has been with SSEF for more than a decade, evolving from a volunteer organiser into Director of Education and, latterly, CEO with a team of staff. Jenny is an expert in the delivery of secondary school science education, having worked as part of a ‘flying squad’, sent to science departments to assist in raising standards. It was whilst working as a science teacher that Jenny brought a team of students to an SSEF event: the impact was so immediate, obvious and powerful that she became a Volunteer, assisting at competitions.
As a Volunteer, Jenny became known for her skill in liaising with the trustees, the SSEF’s founder, the other volunteers, the sponsors, the UK Space Agency, diverse schools and regional universities. Enthused by the SSEF mission, she utilised her expertise, managing the educational and organisational change which has been fundamental to the expansion of SSEF’s work around the UK, EU and Africa, and in building a staff team whilst maintaining the ethos of a volunteer-strong charity. After a decade of events for school students, Jenny still takes a teacher’s delight in interacting with the students and in seeing the transformational impact of SSEF activities upon those young people.
Initially recognised and recruited by SSEF Founder, Randall Perry, Jenny maintains and promotes the founder’s original vision of a high impact, widely accessible industry simulation which provides an experience beyond any typical ‘school project’. With the staff team,volunteers, trustees and founder, Jenny has helped SSEF expand its efforts around the UK, into the EU and, recently, into Africa, whilst expanding across age groups, across disciplines and whilst handling the need to find income to fund the expansions.
Beyond this, and because of this, Jenny is a champion for the power of SSEF as a volunteer-rich organisation, and finds joy in working with the large, diverse pool of talented volunteers and competition veterans who are so much a part of the SSEF’s world.
Alison Ahearn
Director of Education
Alison Ahearn is the SSEF Director of Education, with a particular remit for Educational Development of the SSEF programmes, for wider audiences and extending to Earth-centric Environmental Design Challenges. Back in 2009, Alison was one of the Imperial teaching staff who responded to Randall Perry’s call for volunteers for a new outreach activity called UKSDC and, after serving as a volunteer and trustee, became Director of Education after formally retiring from Imperial. Alison still contributes to teaching on the MEng at Imperial, on industry-centric modules relating to construction practice, management, law and business. She has won awards for her ‘radical innovation’ in construction education, called The Constructionarium, which has been adopted at universities in the UK and abroad.
Recent developments by Alison include creating the Environmental Design Challenge for UK and a new version tailored for delivery in Barbados. She has also been developing a ‘students-as-partners’ approach to creating programmes to serve youth organisations, such as Ministry of Defence Air Cadets.
Alison practised as a solicitor in Sydney Australia before taking up a post at Imperial College London in 1990, specialising in information systems for construction law barristers. She became an Imperial teacher in 1996 and was made a Principal Teaching Fellow in recognition of her education innovation for industry.
Sam Hession
Head of Events and Administration
Sam originally joined the SSE²F as the programme coordinator of the Global Space Design Challenge (GSDC), who’s sole purpose is to support the SSE²F charity. She has since become the secretary for the SSE²F and its overall Programme Coordinator. Sam is calm and efficient and as our Programme Coordinator, she enjoys using the super organised side of her personality to ensure that all our events run smoothly. Previously she spent 25 years providing world class customer service in the air with British Airways. Now that her wings have been clipped she is looking forward to being involved in all phases of the SSE²F charity programmes as well as organising and running the GSDC with the rest of the team. On her days off she can be found hanging out at the beach, paddle boarding, or officiating a basketball game.
Bethan Mann
IT, Web Master, and Administration
Bethan has 12 years of experience in customer relations, working most recently for HSBC bank. She has also worked within adult and paediatric health care settings and has spent time abroad caring for children with special needs. Bethan is also an avid cook and has enjoyed employment as a chef and has even catered for re-enactment events in the past.
When Bethan is not working she likes to spend her free time with her family, taking her young son on trips out to national parks, sea-life centres and the zoo.
UKSDC Committee Member
Victoria has been a long term volunteer with the UKSDC. She went to Bishop's Stortford College. where she participated in the UKSDC as a student. She was in the winning team and represented Bishop Stortford College and the UK in the Interntional Finals at NASA Kennedy's Space Center Florida
UKSDC Committee Member
Theo is just finishing/has just finished his masters in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London and is about to begin/has begun a PhD developing new, faster techniques for simulating nuclear reactors. After competing in the UK Space Design Competition from 2016-2018 and competing with the EU team at the international finals at NASA, Theo has gone on to have a wide-ranging involvement with space and nuclear subjects: from leading Imperial College Space Society's Rocket Engine Design Programme; building reaction control thrusters for a cube-sat; reaching the top twenty in The Mars Society's City States competition alongside other UKSDC volunteers; updating maintenance and safety guidelines for part of the JET fusion reactor; and publishing new models and theories for the construction of mechanical counterpressure spacesuits (International Conference on Environment Systems 2022). Theo helps to run a selection of the UKSDC's events and is continually looking to add to its educational value while making it more enjoyable. Theo doesn't have time to do much else, although he manages to run a weekly Dungeons and Dragons game!
UKSDC Committee Member
Aadil first became involved with the SSE²F as a student participant; later as a volunteer; then as an organiser and competition board member. He was the Galactic Challenge Chair at the start of COVID-19 and organised the Digital Competitions, which accidentally became the SSE²F’s largest programme that year. Aadil is an analyst in the UK Civil Service and holds a degree in physics from Imperial College London. His current interests include the London Underground and learning about effective ways to positively impact the world.
UKSDC Committee Member
Neelesh is a fourth year Electrical and Electronic Engineering student at Imperial College London.He became involved in the competition back in 2016, and progressed with his team to the national final in 2017. Since 2018, Neelesh has volunteered regularly for the UKSDC, and even accompanied the UK and EU Teams to the 2018 ISSDC as a team supervisor. He joined the UKSDC Board in March 2020, and was appointed the first chair of the UKSDC Design & Publications Committee.
UKSDC Committee Member
Alex is a recent Mechanical Engineering graduate from the University of Warwick.Competing at national finals in 2015 and 2016, Alex was invited to join the UK Team competing in the 2016 ISSDC. Alex first volunteered at the national final in 2017, and became increasingly involved after becoming the UKSDC webmaster in July 2017. Alex joined the UKSDC Board in October 2019. He became the first chair of the UKSDC Digital Committee in March 2020. In addition, Alex chairs the UKSDC Alumni & Volunteers Committee, and sits on the UKSDC Design & Publications Committee.
UKSDC Committee Member
Liam first competed in the UK Space Design Competition in the 2019/2020 cycle, although his competition experience was not all plain sailing. Despite losing his first Regional qualifying competition, the space design bug had well and truly bitten and Liam returned through the video competition to the National, and later International, Finals which he won in 2020. After returning for another successful cycle of competitions in the 2020/2021 academic year, Liam still hadn't got enough space designing done and has continued to return as a volunteer. His work as Competition Resources Manager has seen vast updates to the UKSDC website, including updating all of the settlement and subcontractor information which is essential to the UKSDC universe. Liam is currently studying Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College London and is hoping to specialise in spacecraft engineering in his third year.
UKSDC Committee Member