Professor Joseph N. Pelton, Ph.D.

Chairman of the academic standing committee

Dr. Joseph N. Pelton is the award winning author or editor of some 35 books and over 300 articles in the field of space systems. His books include Global Talk, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
He is the Director Emeritus of the Space and Advanced Communications Research Institute (SACRI) at George Washington University. He served as Chairman of the Board (1992-95) and Vice President of Academic Programs and Dean (1995-96) of the International Space University of Strasbourg, France. From 1988 to 1996 Dr. Pelton served as Director of the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Pelton also held a number of executive positions at the COMSAT Corporation and at INTELSAT where he headed strategic planning
Dr. Pelton is a Fellow of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), a member of its Executive Board and Chairman of its Academic Committee. He is also the former President of the International Space Safety Foundation and co-author of the forthcoming books on space safety entitled Small Satellites and their Regulation and Handbook of Cosmic Hazards and Planetary Defense.
He was the founding president of the Society of Satellite Professionals International and the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) Foundation. In July 2013 he received in the United Kingdom the International Award known as “The Arthur” in honor of Arthur C. Clarke. He also received the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement award in 2001. This is a Foundation he helped to found thirty years ago in 1983. Dr. Pelton was elected to full membership in the International Academy of Astronautics in 1998 and was elected to the Hall of Fame of the Society of Satellite Professionals International in 2001, an honor only extended to some 50 people in the field. In 2004 he was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. From 1969 to 1989.
Joseph N. Pelton received his Ph.D. from Georgetown University, his Masters from New York University and his BA from the University of Tulsa.