Lily Rospeen Asongfac is a Cameroonian telecommunications engineer, space partnerships development manager, and advocate for STEM education and space technology in Africa. She founded the Aerospace Baby Project, an initiative dedicated to inspiring and mentoring young Africans in aerospace and STEM. As Cameroon’s National Point of Contact for the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), she has played a key role in organizing regional space events and contributing to discussions around gender mainstreaming in space.
Lily is a 2024 African Space Leader Awardee, a 2024 Young Person of the Year (Cameroon Youth Awards) winner, and a TechWomen Fellow, having gained experience at NASA JPL and Jacobs Aerospace. She is passionate about leveraging space technology for sustainable development and increasing African representation in the global space sector.

Joel Gagnon first dreamed of the stars as a young boy growing up in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His passion for space led him to pursue a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics degree with a minor in Astrophysics from the University of Minnesota. He went on to earn a Master of Aerospace Engineering degree from McGill University, and later completed a Certificate in Business from Queen’s University. Joel spent 3 years working on hypersonic propulsion technologies at Space Engine Systems in Edmonton, Alberta, and is now a Thermal Flow Application Analyst at Maya HTT in Montreal, Quebec. Joel currently serves as a National Point of Contact for Canada at the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) and has been a proud member since 2019. Through SGAC, he continues to connect with and learn from space enthusiasts from around the world. He is passionate about discovering ways to improve life on Earth using space technologies. Joel lives an active lifestyle and is a retired NCAA and Canadian National Team gymnast. In his free time, he enjoys running, biking, hiking, yoga, travelling and drinking speciality coffee.

Cynthia Valenzuela is a Mexican genomic biotechnology student with a strong passion for astrobiology and space biotechnology. She was part of the winning team of the International Air and Space Program (IASP) by NASA and AEXA, where 60 students worldwide are selected for an intensive astronaut training program and space competition in Alabama. Her team developed Luminys, a biomaterial using extremophile microorganisms to protect lunar bases from radiation, and the project will be sent to the International Space Station this year. She also co-founded Astromycota, an early-stage startup focused on engineering edible fungi to prevent osteoporosis in astronauts, which was presented at the iGEM Giant Jamboree in Paris, France. Additionally, she was a semifinalist in the Achieved Competition by SGAC as part of Team Ceres, working on a project to extract minerals from asteroids using bacteria to be applied in agricultural systems in space. Cynthia was one of 52 students globally selected for the Young Scientist Program at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, where she analyzed bacteria involved in chemical processes analogous to those on Mars. She also participated in the NASA Space Apps Challenge, contributing to a project that ranked among the Top 40 out of more than 9,900 teams worldwide. And as one of the coordinators of iGEM FCB-UANL team, she worked on the project, Synbiofoam, which won the “Best Environmental Project” and “Best Entrepreneurship Project” awards and ranked among the Top 10 globally.