Dr. Diamandis is the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. Dr. Diamandis is an international leader in the commercial space arena, having founded and run many of the leading entrepreneurial companies in this sector. Dr. Diamandis also serves as the CEO of Zero Gravity Corporation, a commercial space company developing private, FAA-certified parabolic flight utilize Boeing 727-200 aircraft. He is the Chairman & Co-Founder of the Rocket Racing League as well as the Co-Founder and Director of Space Adventures, the company which brokered the launches of four private citizens to the International Space Station.

In 1987, Dr. Diamandis co-founded the International Space University (ISU), where he served as the University’s first managing director. Today, he serves as a Trustee of the $30M ISU that is based in Strasbourg, France. Prior to ISU, Dr. Diamandis served as Chairman of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), an organization he founded at MIT in 1980. SEDS is the world’s largest student pro space organization.

Dr. Diamandis attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received his Bachelor of Science in molecular genetics and Master of Science in aerospace engineering. After Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he attended Harvard Medical School where he received his Doctor of Medicine. In 2005, he was also awarded an honorary Doctorate from the International Space University.

He is the winner of the 2006 (inaugural) Heinlein Award, the 2006 Lindbergh Award, the 2006 Wired RAVE Award, the Konstantine Tsiolkovsky Award, twice the winner of the Aviation & Space Technology Laurel, and the 2003 World Technology Award for Space. In 8th grade, while living in New York, Dr. Diamandis won first place in the Estes rocket design contest.

Dr. Diamandis’ mission is to open the space frontier for humanity. His personal motto is: “The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself!”