VIENNA, AUSTRIA, 30 SEPTEMBER 2023 – SGAC is thrilled to announce that Dr Chris Boshuizen has been selected as the 2023 recipient of the SGAC Alumni Award!
In 2019, on the occasion of SGAC’s 20th anniversary, the organisation launched its Alumni Award Programme intending to acknowledge selected alumni for extraordinary contributions to the SGAC community, demonstrating a high degree of commitment to SGAC, and for their outstanding leadership and ongoing support to the organisation.
Dr. Chris Boshuizen is an Australian astronaut, scientist, entrepreneur, investor, and musician. Currently a Partner at DCVC, a deep tech investment company in San Francisco where he focuses on funding cutting edge space companies, Boshuizen completed his PhD in physics at The University of Sydney before accepting a position at the NASA Ames Research Center in California. There Dr Boshuizen established Singularity University and most notably co-created the NASA Phonesat. After leaving NASA he co-founded Planet Labs, the first company to employ nanosatellites in a commercial capacity, radically reducing the cost of lifting payloads into space and paving the way for today’s large constellations of spacecraft. Today, Planet operates the largest fleet of Earth-observing satellites and maps the entire surface of the Earth daily, enabling key insights into our changing world that were previously unobtainable. Boshuizen was the 2014 Advance Global Australian of the Year award winner, and has subsequently become a member of the Advance Board of Directors where he is an active spokesperson for successful Australians abroad. Boshuizen is also a musician and releases music under the name “Dr Chrispy”. Dr Boshuizen flew to space as a commercial astronaut on Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-18 mission on October 13 2021.
Website https://drchrispy.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drchrispymusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cboshuizen & https://twitter.com/drchrispymusic
Dr Chrispy Music: https://drchrispy.com/spotify
“I’m honored to be recognized by the Space Generation Advisory Council with this year’s Alumni Award,” said Bush. “Challenger Center and SGAC share a common mission—to inspire the next generation. Today’s students and young professionals are tomorrow’s leaders and innovators, and we must ignite and foster their potential. It’s been a privilege to lead and support SGAC for more than 20 years in its vision to cultivate the views and opinions of today’s youth to ensure the advancement of humanity’s use of outer space.”
Mr Chris Boshuizen was nominated by Valentina Luchetti, SGAC Acting Executive Director:
“Chris has been one of the early-time people of SGAC and had an executive top leadership position right along with Agnieszka. He has without any doubts been a crucial element of SGAC’s growth during its age of inception.
Since then, Chris has been a longstanding supporter of SGAC – he now actively gives back to SGAC through keynote talks, attending events, mentoring, and providing incredibly generous donations to support scholarships.
We are incredibly thankful for Chris’ support and kindness towards the young generation!”
