Professor Anu Ojha OBE is a member of the Executive Committee of the UK Space Agency and Director for the Championing Space Directorate. Included in his portfolio are leadership of the Agency’s International and ESA Policy teams as well as UKSA’s public/parliamentary affairs, communications and education/skills development/inspiration programmes.

Prior to joining the Agency in May 2023 he was the founder of the UK National Space Academy programme and a Director of the National Space Centre. Appointed Honorary Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester in 2016, he is a co-investigator in the University’s programme for nuclear power applications for exploration, was involved in data analysis from ESA’s Rosetta, Mars Express and SOHO missions and was Principal Investigator for the ESA/UKSA Astro Academy Principia education experiment suite conducted by Tim Peake during his mission to the International Space Station. He continues to teach on the University’s MSc course in Space Exploration Systems specialising in human survival in extreme environments and helped develop and teaches on the University’s new undergraduate-level Fundamentals of Space training course for space professionals.