The Initiative for Interstellar Studies is led by a team of dedicated individuals who work to realise the organisation's ultimate goal of enabling both robotic and human exploration and colonisation of the nearby stars—our Board of Directors.
Andreas Hein, PhD
Executive Director, Chairman Technical Research Committee
Andreas received his master’s degree in aerospace engineering at the Technical University of Munich. He obtained a PhD at the same university in the area of space systems engineering, focusing on the application of heritage technologies to space systems, doing part of his research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) System Architecture Lab. He also worked at the European Space Agency Strategy and Architecture Office on stakeholder analysis for future crewed space exploration. Andreas has published over 30 articles on interstellar travel in peer-reviewed international journals and conferences. He is a member of the International Honor Society for Systems Engineering – Omega Alpha Association, a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, and a member of INCOSE.
Robert Swinney
Deputy Director, Chairman Education Academy Committee
In the 1980s Rob Swinney completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (achieving a 2:1) and his Master of Science degree in Radio Astronomy at the University of Manchester (Jodrell Bank – thesis ‘Kinematics of the Radio Flare star Cygnus X-3′). After several successful years working as a teacher of Craft, Design and Technology at Sherborne Boys School in Dorset he returned to his studies and graduated from Cranfield University (then the Cranfield Institute of Technology) with a further Master of Science degree in Avionics and Flight Control Systems (thesis ‘Graphical Interface for a hybrid Flight Simulator’). After Cranfield University he undertook a challenging and rewarding career in the Royal Air Force as an Aerosystems Engineering Officer and he completed his RAF Commission in 2006 having attained the rank of Squadron Leader. He is a Chartered Engineer registered with the UK’s Engineering Council and a Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society. Rob has been published in Nature and the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and recently returned to the world of academia and research. Rob was inspired by Isaac Asimov, first by the great author’s science fiction but later by the non-fiction that opened his mind to the future possibilities. This inspiration encouraged him to undertake a lifelong study of aspects of Cosmology and Astronomy. As a boy he followed the Apollo adventure and as a young man the Grand Tour of the Voyager spacecraft but after his studies became restrained by the realities of life. As important, the boyhood images of Star Trek and such, some 30-40 years ago, appeared to be no more than pure fantasy. Now today, he believes the ‘planets are aligning’ again and the i4is will galvanise the population and prove that, although it may still seem difficult, real practical steps on the road to interstellar travel are being taken.
Tam O'Neill
Manager of the Membership Team
Tam's primary role at i4is is as the manager of the team which controls our online presence, including the website, membership system and email.
He also joined the i4is Education team in 2022.
Tam has been in the IT industry for almost 40 years and is currently a systems specialist in High Performance Computing systems with the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow. He has previously been a systems manager with BAeSystems, and an IT Consultant with such companies as HP, DXC Technologies and M&Co, as well as various other organisations.
Tam has been a member of the i4is Board of Directors since May 2024.
Robert Kennedy III
Director Geoengineering & Resource Utilisation, President US Company
Robert Kennedy was educated in the classics and foreign languages since boyhood (Latin, Greek, Arabic, and Russian). He studied studied mechanical engineering at California Polytechnic (Pomona, B.S. 1986), with emphases in robotics, machine design, optical physics. Fresh out of school, he designed industrial robotics systems at the Douglas Aircraft Company (1987-1991) in Los Angeles, and pursued research in artificial intelligence at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (1987). Robert founded the Ultimax Group, Inc. (1992-present, www.ultimax.com ), a Russian-American company in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is a published commercial artist and author (nonfiction), and has written about space-based solar power, shell worlds, climate change, linguistics, energy parks, biofuels, and energy security. In 2011 and 2013, he co-organized and sponsored the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshops (www.tviw.us) in Oak Ridge Tennessee and Huntsville Alabama and went onto be a co-founder of the subsequent non-profit TVIW. He has lectured on geoengineering in Moscow for the Russian Academy of Sciences / Rosgidromet (their national weather service), and also at the International Academy of Astronautics in Aosta, Italy. His work has also appeared in /Journal of the British Interplanetary Society/, /Acta Astronautica/, the /Whole Earth Review/ and a cover story on Soviet Star Wars in the Smithsonian /Air & Space/ magazine. He has patents and trademarks pending for a number of optoelectronic, robotic, security, and space system inventions as well as the concept of Tetrageneration(TM). As the American Society of Mechanical Engineer’s 1994 Congressional Fellow, he spent his year working for the Subcommittee on Space in the U.S. House of Representatives. He participated in the First Interstellar Robotics Conference at NYU, and was a technical consultant on “Deep Impact” (Paramount/Dreamworks major motion picture released May 8, 1998). He is past-chair of the Oak Ridge Section as well as the Technology & Society Division; and currently sits on the Society’s national Energy Committee, tasked with writing Energy Talking Point papers for the 110th thru 113th Congresses and the Society’s Carbon Statement. Currently, Robert is a senior systems engineer at Tetra Tech.
Dan Fries
Funded by a Fulbright scholarship, Dan received his M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering in 2013 from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is currently working towards his German diploma at the European Space Agency. His specialisation is in advanced airbreathing and space propulsion systems as well as atmospheric re-entry.
Due to his personal interest, he also has experience with systems engineering and group management. In 2013/2014 he successfully led a team at the University of Stuttgart in the International Mars Inspiration Engineering Design Contest.
Patrick Mahon
Patrick Mahon has worked in the public, private and third sectors for over three decades, and currently works for a national charity focused on the needs of rural communities, where he is the Head of Policy and Public Affairs.
He completed a BSc in Maths and Physics in 1990 and an MSc in Environmental Decision Making in 2006, and in between studied for a PhD in Theoretical Physics, specialising in modelling the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect.
Patrick is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society. He is a published author, and helps to run his local writing group. His lifelong interest in astronomy and spaceflight was inspired by the Apollo missions to the Moon, so he was delighted and privileged to meet Colonel Al Worden, the Command Module Pilot for the Apollo 15 mission, at an i4is event in 2017.
Patrick is a Deputy Editor of Principium, and is a member of the i4is membership team.