Bruce Walker Ferguson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1954 (age 69–70) United States |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Title | President of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani |
| Spouse | Heather R. Sandiford (m. 1976) |
| Website | www |
Bruce Walker Ferguson is an educator, entrepreneur and lawyer who is President of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani [1] and a co-founder of Orbital Sciences Corporation.
Bruce Walker Ferguson was born in Washington D.C. in 1954. He attended schools in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Thailand, Kenya, Lebanon, New York, and New Hampshire, graduating in 1972 from Phillips Exeter Academy.
After receiving an A.B. degree in Government and a Master of Education from Harvard in 1976, Ferguson was a graduate student in Political Science at the University of Delhi, India on a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship before returning to Harvard to complete a four-year J.D.-M.B.A. joint degree program. [2] At Harvard Law School he served as an Articles Editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Following graduation Ferguson worked at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago as an attorney in the corporate and securities department, working on mergers and acquisitions and venture capital transactions. Ferguson has been a member of the Illinois Bar Association since 1981.
At Harvard Business School he met David Thompson and Scott Webster, with whom in 1982 he co-founded Orbital Sciences Corporation to develop commercial opportunities in space. From 1982 to 1993, in positions that included senior vice president, finance and administration; general counsel; and chief operating officer, Ferguson played a role in arranging collaborations and financing for projects such as development of the world's first privately funded orbital launch vehicles: the Space Shuttle-launched Transfer Orbit Stage for boosting spacecraft from Shuttle orbit to geosynchronous orbit and planetary trajectories; the aircraft-launched Pegasus for delivering small research and communications spacecraft into low Earth orbit; and the ground-launched Taurus for delivering larger payloads to Earth orbit. From 1993 to his resignation in 1997, Ferguson's was executive vice president, Communications and Information Systems Group; his activities included management of Orbital's Magellan division that built and marketed commercial Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, Orbcomm's introduction of low-Earth orbit satellite systems, and Orbimage's introduction of commercial Earth remote sensing services.
In 1998 Ferguson founded and was the first president of Edenspace Systems Corporation, a privately held plant biotechnology company that bioengineered crop plants to increase livestock nutrition and to assist in biomass pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis for ethanol production. [3] However, public concerns about bioengineered crops and the consequent delays and high cost of obtaining regulatory approvals (estimated to total up to $15 million for each new bioengineered crop variety [4] ) made commercial development of this technology impractical. Edenspace terminated most of its research and development in 2011, when Ferguson stepped down as president.
In 2012, Ferguson joined the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi as Professor of Practice, Engineering Systems and Management. He formed and led a new Institute Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and developed new course content on entrepreneurship, led the creation of a $7 million collaboration with BP Ventures on technology innovation, [5] and helped to develop a new space graduate degree program with Yahsat and Orbital ATK. [6]
Ferguson was named AUIS president on August 1, 2016, succeeding Dr. Esther Mulnix who had served as interim president since January, 2015. During Ferguson's tenure, AUIS was the first Kurdistan Region private university to receive accreditation from the central government in Baghdad, and added new majors in Civil Engineering (including a dual degree program with the University of Arizona), Medical Laboratory Science, Translation, Law, and Software Engineering.
From 1993 to 2019, Ferguson was a Trustee of the Carnegie Institution for Science, serving 2013–2019, as Vice Chair. [7]
Ferguson received the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award and Aviation Week & Space Technology Laurels Award.
Ferguson is married to Heather R. Sandiford, who received an A.B. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. He and Heather have two children. Ferguson has a sister, Sherry Ferguson Zoellick, and brother, Scott Ferguson.
Ferguson's father, Glenn Walker Ferguson, was a director of the Peace Corps in Thailand, the first Director of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, head of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, President of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and former president of four universities. [8] His mother, Patricia Head Ferguson, served as a trustee of Mary Washington College. [9]
The Andrew Project was a distributed computing environment developed at Carnegie Mellon University beginning in 1982. It was an ambitious project for its time and resulted in an unprecedentedly vast and accessible university computing infrastructure. The project was named after Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, the founders of the institutions that eventually became Carnegie Mellon University.
Orbital Sciences Corporation was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other government customers. In 2014, Orbital merged with Alliant Techsystems to create a new company called Orbital ATK, Inc., which in turn was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018. The remnants of the former Orbital Sciences Corporation became a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, known as Northrop Grumman Space Systems.
IndoStar-1, also known as Cakrawarta-1, was a communication satellite that was launched the evening of November 12, 1997 at 21:48 GMT aboard an Ariane 44L-3 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. As the first direct broadcasting satellite (DBS) in Asia, IndoStar-1 would initiate a new communication service for Indonesian society such as direct-to-home television.
The University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science is the undergraduate and graduate engineering school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia. The school offers programs that emphasize hands-on study of engineering fundamentals while encouraging students to leverage the educational offerings of the broader University. Engineering students can also take advantage of research opportunities through interactions with Penn’s School of Medicine, School of Arts and Sciences, and the Wharton School.
American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) is a not-for-profit, private institution for public benefit, located in Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The university offers an American-style liberal arts education to students from various economic, ethnic and religious backgrounds.
The Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) is a spacecraft that extends the functional lifetime of another spacecraft through on-orbit satellite servicing. They are 2010s-design small-scale in-space satellite-refueling spacecraft first launched in 2019. The MEV spacecraft grew out of a concept proposed in 2011 by ViviSat, a 50/50 joint venture of aerospace firms US Space and Alliant Techsystems (ATK). The joint venture was created in 2010 for the purpose of designing, producing and operating the MEV program.
ICESat-2, part of NASA's Earth Observing System, is a satellite mission for measuring ice sheet elevation and sea ice thickness, as well as land topography, vegetation characteristics, and clouds. ICESat-2, a follow-on to the ICESat mission, was launched on 15 September 2018 onboard Delta II as the final flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, into a near-circular, near-polar orbit with an altitude of approximately 496 km (308 mi). It was designed to operate for three years and carry enough propellant for seven years. The satellite orbits Earth at a speed of 6.9 kilometers per second (4.3 mi/s).
Nanoracks LLC is a private in-space services company which builds space hardware and in-space repurposing tools. The company also facilitates experiments and launches of CubeSats to Low Earth Orbit.
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems in 2015. Orbital ATK was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018. Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems designed, built, and delivered space, defense, and aviation-related systems to customers around the world both as a prime contractor and as a merchant supplier. It had a workforce of approximately 12,000 employees dedicated to aerospace and defense including about 4,000 engineers and scientists; 7,000 manufacturing and operations specialists; and 1,000 management and administration personnel. With Northrop Grumman's reorganization of its divisions effective January 1, 2020, NGIS was split, with most of the sector merging with other Northrop Grumman businesses into a new Space Systems sector.
The United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) is the space agency of the United Arab Emirates government responsible for the development of the country's space industry. It was created in 2014 and is responsible for developing and regulating the space sector in the UAE.
NG-10, previously known as OA-10E, is the eleventh flight of the Northrop Grumman uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its tenth flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract with NASA. The mission launched on 17 November 2018, at 09:01:31 UTC. This particular mission is part of an extension of the initial CRS contract that enables NASA to cover the ISS resupply needs until the Commercial Resupply Services-2 (CRS-2) contract enters in effect.
NG-11, previously known as OA-11, is the twelfth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its eleventh flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract with NASA. The mission launched on 17 April 2019 at 20:46:07 UTC. This is the last mission from the extended CRS-1 contract; follow-up missions are part of the CRS-2 contract. Cygnus NG-11 was also the first mission to load critical hardware onto Cygnus within the last 24 hours prior to launch, a new Antares feature.
The GEOStar is a family of satellite buses designed and manufactured by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. The family started focused on small geostationary communications satellites. The first iterations focused on the sub-5 kW commercial segment that was left vacated after the retirement of the HS-376 satellite bus. It started with the STARBus on CTA Space Systems, which was later bought successively by Orbital Sciences, Orbital ATK, and most recently Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems.
NOAA-21, designated JPSS-2 prior to launch, is the second of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s latest generation of U.S. polar-orbiting, non-geosynchronous, environmental satellites called the Joint Polar Satellite System. NOAA-21 was launched on 10 November 2022 and join NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP in the same orbit. Circling the Earth from pole-to-pole, it will cross the equator about 14 times daily, providing full global coverage twice a day. It was launched with LOFTID.
NG-12, previously known as OA-12, was the thirteenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its twelfth Commercial Resupply Services flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. The mission launched on 2 November 2019 at 13:59:47 UTC). This was the first launch of Cygnus under the Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) contract.
NG-14, previously known as OA-14, was the fifteenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its fourteenth flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract with NASA. The mission was launched on 3 October 2020, at 01:16:14 UTC.
NG-15, previously known as OA-15, was the fifteenth launch of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its fourteenth flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. The mission launched on 20 February 2021 at 17:36:50 UTC. This is the fourth launch of Cygnus under the CRS-2 contract.
ArmCosmos, commonly known as the Armenian Space Agency, is an Armenian private agency responsible for the development of Armenia's commercial space industry, coordinating domestic activities, identifying opportunities and facilitating international space engagement, on behalf of the Government of Armenia. Its headquarters are located in Yerevan, Armenia.
Cygnus NG-16, previously known as Cygnus OA-16, was the sixteenth flight of the Northrop Grumman robotic resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its fifteenth flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-2) contract with NASA. The mission was launched on 10 August 2021 at 22:01:05 UTC, for a (planned) 90-day mission at the ISS. This was the fifth launch of Cygnus under the CRS-2 contract.
The domain of international space politics gained significant traction during the Cold War. This was largely fuelled by the ongoing space race between the USA and the USSR. At this time in history, space exploration was an endeavour largely restricted to the global superpowers and seemed out of reach for many smaller, developing, nations to actively participate in. Subsequently, public concerns for the cost of research and development into novel space technologies did not receive sufficient policy and academic attention in Africa. As the Cold War reached its conclusion, political power began to diffuse across the world, and this led to many smaller nation states developing national and regional space capabilities. In the context of Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and South Africa were the front-runners in terms of investments into space-related research and development.