Alan Wells

Alan Wells is an Emeritus Professor of Space Technology at the University of Leicester, UK, where he was appointed as the founding director of the University’s Space Research Centre, He has had significant involvement in ten international space missions with ESA, NASA, UK, Italian German and Russian space agencies in space astrophysics, planetary science and, for past decade, in earth observation science. More recently, he set up Redshift Associates Ltd as a consultancy service to develop and exploit the uptake of space data and services in non-space industrial sectors. He plays a leading role the European Space Agency’s Clean Air Clean Harbour Energy-CACHE 22-project which uses satellite data and services to address issues of air pollution mitigation, GHG emission reduction and uptake of renewable energy associated with maritime operations and has related experience and a wide network of specialists in satellite applications applied to forestry, mining and agriculture. He holds three achievement awards from NASA and ESA, the Sir Arthur C Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award for services to space, the 2016 The Royal Astronomical Society Service Award for Astronomy and, more recently, the Leicestershire-Live 2021 Award for Innovations in Space. He was also an invited panelist at a side meeting of the recent UN Ocean Conference UNOC 2022 in Lisbon speaking addressing opportunities for monitoring marine pollution and enabling decarbonization of maritime transport through space solutions and other innovative technologies.