Professor Anu Ojha OBE
Biography
Professor Anu Ojha OBE is the Director of Championing Space at the UK Space Agency, responsible for overseeing the Agency’s inspiration and outreach activities, its international relationships and ESA policy teams, and leading on how we engage with audiences on the growing importance of space.
Anu has worked in roles within a range of space and science organisations, including as a Director of the UK National Space Centre, a member of STFC Council and a member of the European Space Agency Human Spaceflight and Exploration Science Advisory Committee (HESAC).
Anu previously led the UK National Space Academy which, since its launch in 2008, has trained more than 6,000 UK teachers, with more than 65,000 secondary, further education and international University students participating in its masterclasses across the UK and Europe and in China, the UAE and South Africa. He also teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester.
Anu was Principal Investigator for the Astro Academy Principia educational experiment programme conducted by Tim Peake aboard the International Space Station in 2016. He has worked with ESA as part of the team developing the high-level science strategy which underpins the agency’s ambitions for human and robotic exploration of the Moon and Mars over the next two decades and has also supported the Rosetta, Mars Express and SOHO missions.
Prior to his space career, Anu was a Physics teacher, Assistant Headteacher at the largest school in England and National Lead Practitioner (Physics) for the UK Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. A lifelong lover of aviation, he is a current skydiver with nearly 1500 jumps and was involved as a skydiving and science analyst for Felix Baumgartner’s Red Bull Stratos stratospheric jump programme.
Director of Championing Space
The director oversees the UK Space Agency’s international relations, inspiration and outreach activities and leads on how we engage with audiences on the growing importance of space.