Prof. Dr. Walter Peeters
President, International Space University Incumbent Assumed Office 8 September 2011 Preceded by: Prof. Dr. Michael Simpson Personal Details Born Antwerp, 28 June 1950 (67 years) Citizenship European Nationality Belgian Alma Mater KU Louvain, TU Delft
Walter Peeters, born in Antwerpen on 28 June 1950, is a Belgian engineer, economist and professor. After a career with ESA he became president of the International Space University (ISU) in 2011.
EDUCATION Walter Peeters completed the primary school in Ekeren at the St.-Lambertusinstituut (a) and afterwards at the Royal Atheneum in Antwerp (Latin-Scientific option). He obtained an engineering degree in nuclear engineering and a degree in Applied Economics at the Catholic University of Louvain, complemented by an MBA with as major Operations Management. Later he obtained a doctorate in engineering at the Technical University of Delft (then called TH Delft) with a thesis on incentive contracting in the Aerospace Sector (b). His thesis supervisor was Prof. J. in ’t Veld, an authority in the field of systems theory.
CAREER
Initially, Peeters worked as engineer in the construction sector and in the petrochemical sector, specializing in the field of project planning. In 1983, he joined the European Space Agency (ESA) and was involved in several control and project management functions. Initial assignments were related to the extension of test facilities at ESA’s technology center ESTEC in Noordwijk before joining the HERMES project in Toulouse. After several redesign phases the mass of the Hermes spacecraft continued to increase as well as the estimated cost-to-completion; at the end the ESA Member States decided to terminate the project (c). Upon creation of the European Astronaut Center (EAC) in Cologne, he became Head of the astronaut coordination office and acted in Star City, by Moscow, as coordinator of the astronaut operations during the EUROMIR missions in 1994 and 1995. As far as academic activities are concerned, after a sabbatical year he published the book ‘Space Marketing’ in 2000 and joined the International Space University as Professor in space business and management. In 2004 he was named as dean of the university, which was highly noted in the Belgian press (1), (2), (3) and since 2011 elected as president (4). Research activities are focused on the commercialization of space activities as well as the development of New Space activities. Specific attention is dedicated to the transition from experimental sub-orbital space tourism to commercial spaceflights, leading to a publication for the International Academy of Astronautics on sub-orbital space tourism. In 2009 he was elected as Founding Director of the International Institute of Space Commerce (IISC) (d). Special interests include the role of space activities as a catalyst of international cooperation, as presented inter alia at Facing Tomorrow in Jeruzalem (5). It also led him to propose in 2014 the International Space Station as a candidate for the Peace Noble Prize (6); unfortunately, the geopolitical context (situation in Ukraine) at that time were not beneficial for this proposal. Recent emphasis of Peeters includes consulting of governments such as the Baltic States (7), Luxembourg (8) and Oman as well as assisting young space entrepreneurs in business plan development and start-up activities. He is working together closely with the local authorities to promote space activities in Alsace (9) and to transfer part of ISU as a space incubator in the North of France.
OTHER ACTIVITIES - Director of IISC - Member of the Advisory Board of Space Ventures GmbH - Member of the Board of the ISU-UniSA activities in Adelaide, Australia
AWARDS
- Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) - Recipient of the Yuri Gagarin Medal No 176 in 2000 - NASA Group Achievement awards
MAJOR PUBLICATIONS Peeters, W.A., The appropriate use of contract types in development contracts, Ph.D. thesis, also published as ESA-STR-222, Oct. 1987.
Peeters, W.A. and in ‘t Veld, J., The Use of Alternate Contract Types in Europe as Protection Against Overruns. National Contracts Management Journal, Vol. 23 (1), pp. 23-34, 1989.
Peeters, Walter A. R., Space Marketing. A European Perspective. (Kluwer Academic Publ., Dordrecht, Boston, 2000) ISBN 0-7923-6744-8. 352 pp.
Peeters, W. Space Marketing (in Chinese) (Caphbook, Beijing, 2004) ISBN 7-80144-866-9. 376 p.
Peeters W. ISS as a Nobel Prize Nominee? Why not? SpaceNews 25(7) (2014), p. 19,
Peeters, W. and Madauss B. A proposed strategy against Cost Overruns in the space sector : the 5C approach. Journal of Space Policy 24(2), May 2008, pp.80-89.
Peeters, W., From suborbital space tourism to commercial personal spaceflight. Acta Astronautica 66 (2010) pp. 1625-1632.
Peeters, W. Space Science: A cradle for philosophers, Astropolitics, 10:27–38, 2012
Peeters, W. et al., Private Human Access to Space, Vol.1 Suborbital Flights , June 2014, IAA report SG 3.9, ISBN number : 978-2-917761-35-9.
Peeters, W., Is New Space Lifting Off? Prospective Stratégique, 45 (2016), pp.60-65.
EXTERNAL REFERENCES
- IAF Biography, www.IAFASTRO.org/biografie/prof-walter-peeters-2/
- ISU Biography, www.ISUNET.edu/prof-walter-peeters
- Strasbourg, The Seat (June 2017); Profile Walter Peeters
- ResearchGate, www.researchgate.net/profile/Walter_Peeters
Notes
(a) Kerk en Leven, 16 July 2014, p.1. (b) Delta, Beloning motiveert beter dan boete, 19(36), 19 Nov. 1987, p.4. (c) Harvey, B., Europe’s Space Programme, To Ariane and Beyond. Ch. 6.25 to 6.29 (Springer, 2003) (d) See: www.iisc.im/about/
Citations (1) Gazet Van Antwerpen, Studenten in Space, GVA (15 Nov. 2004) p.20.
(2) Athena, Une famille mondiale : à l’heure spatiale, 215 (Nov. 2005), pp. 117-119.
(3) Trends, Ruimte-Belg, (15 Nov. 2007) pp. 100-103.
(4) ISU Announces Newly Appointed President and Dean; https://www.spacefoundation.org/media/partner-news/isu-announces-newly-appointed-president-and-dean , 14 September 2011.
(5) Facing Tomorrow 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Qh_kSh0uc
(6) SpaceNews 25(7) (2014), p. 19,
(7) See also: www.nordicbaltsat.eu
(8) Paperjam, Le secteur spatial prêt à redécoller , http://paperjam.lu/news/le-secteur-spatial-pret-redecoller (24 November 2010)
(9) DNA. Au centre du monde Spatial, 5 Sept. 2008 (Region, p.6)