Yumna Majeed is studying a BS of Medical Laboratory Technology at Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore. She’s the founder of Exploration – Shades of cosmos, a space education organisation. Being associated with various international astronomy organisations, she is working to promote Astronomy in her community.  She says creating space awareness is the first step towards future space races and she has inspired hundreds of children in her outreach campaign. Being a beginner artist, she has added space-arts projects to her curriculum. She believes astronomy and art are tools which open the doors to the infinite universe. Her struggling journey was documented and won two awards at a science film festival. Yumna serves as a national coordinator at Universe Awareness, a project started by IAU and University Leiden, Netherlands. At SGAC, she is the national point of contact for Pakistan.

“I am honored and excited to receive the Asia-Pacific Space Leader Award. SGAC has been the best platform for students and young professionals to achieve their space dreams! Looking forward to AP-SGW to learn, share my experiences and get inspiration from others experiences.”

Yasith Ramawickrama is a Lecturer cum Program Manager at one of the main private Engineering Colleges in Sri Lanka. Yasith obtained a Bachelors degree from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka majoring in Physics, Electronics and Pure Mathematics as subjects and a Masters Degree from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, majoring in Applied Electronics. Yasith has been actively involved with SGAC since 2012 and he was a previous NPoC for Sri Lanka. During his term as an NPoC, he did lots of Space awareness programmes throughout the country as well as the Asia-Pacific region. He has been involved with AP-SGWs since 1st event and he is actively involved with 5 projects groups is in SGAC. Currently, he holds the Honorary Secretary post at the Astronomical Research Institute of Sri Lanka (ARIS) and Senior Academic Advisor post at the Institute of Astronomy, Sri Lanka.

“I am greatly honoured and excited to be receiving the Asia-Pacific Space Leader Award. This award allows me to continue to support the development of Astronomy and Space here in my country, Sri Lanka and as well as the Asia-Pacific region.”

Gourav Namta graduated from the Institute of Engineering and Management (India) with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in the year 2017. He is a member of the Strategic Partnerships Team at SGAC, where he has been leading the implementation of SGAC Jobs Board as the Jobs Board Lead. He was awarded the SGAC member of the month in June 2019 for his contribution. He is also spotted writing blogs around the internet in his free time. He is an active contributor for the publishing website Astropreneurs.space, where he writes more about the space industry and also posts interviews of influential people making an impact in the space industry. Gourav has also published technical articles for satsearch (a global digital space supply chain company), with the aim of democratizing access to the space industry.

Gourav firmly believes that space exploration can not only inspire human beings to go out and do daring things in the universe but also improve the lives of the people dramatically here on Earth. He is specifically enthusiastic about rockets and human colonization in outer space and believes that humans should become interplanetary species to ensure that human consciousness is extended far into the future.

“This is just amazing! I am so honoured and privileged to be awarded the Asia-Pacific Space Leader Award. I think SGAC has been a real game-changer in my career, and I feel so glad to be working with the international talented team who are amazingly inspiring people. Thank you SGAC!”

Brock is an aerospace design & structural analysis engineer at HeliMods – a progressive technology company specialising in custom fitouts for aircraft fleets. He is incredibly enthusiastic about the aviation and aerospace industries and is a strong advocate for STEM outreach. He has volunteered with the SGAC, Australian Youth Aerospace Association (AYAA), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS).

Brock has previously worked at Airbus on the Australian Army’s ARH Tiger Battlefield Helicopter, and has completed a masters thesis on spacecraft heat-shields within the hypersonics research group at The University of Queensland. He has also participated in SGC working groups for Space Situational Awareness and Off-Earth Mining.

One day, Brock hopes to transition his skills to the space sector and strongly believes there is a case for Australian design and manufacturing companies to diversify their business into space technology, directly benefiting the regional economy.

“It is an honour to receive the Asia-Pacific Space Leader Award. This provides me with a great opportunity to meet like-minded individuals in neighbouring countries and discuss how we can make a difference in our burgeoning space economy. Thank you, SGAC!”