Pascale EHRENFREUND

IAF Bureau • IAF past President
International Space University (ISU) • President President of Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) • President

Born in 1960, Prof. Pascale Ehrenfreund obtained degrees in Astronomy and Biology at the University of Vienna. She was appointed as a Fellow of the European Space Agency (ESA) at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, upon completion of her doctoral studies. Between 2001 and 2005, Pascale Ehrenfreund held a professorship in Astrobiology at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Leiden, where she remains a Visiting Professor today. In addition, between 2005 and 2008 she was a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, USA. Since three decades she contributed as Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator and Teamleader to ESA and NASA astronomy and planetary missions as well as experiments in low Earth orbit and on the International Space Station. In 2008 Pascale Ehrenfreund obtained a Master of Arts in Management and Leadership. Since then, she has been Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. She was the President of the Austrian Science Fund (2013-2015) and the Chair of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) between 2015-2020. The asteroid “9826 Ehrenfreund 2114 T-3” bears her name.

Pascale Ehrenfreund, took up duty as IAF President at the IAC 2019 and announced her IAF Global Advocacy Agenda 2019 – 2022, focusing on supporting and facilitating global space governance, stimulating and propelling global space economy and influencing and fostering global space advocacy.

Since September 2021, Prof Ehrenfreund also serves as the President of the International Space University (ISU).