Joseph N. Pelton, BS, MA, Ph.D. is the former Director of the Space and Advanced Communications Research Institute (SACRI) at George Washington University. He is also the founder and Vice Chairman of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. He was the founder and First President of the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI), the former Dean and Chairman of the Board of the International Space University. Dr. Pelton is the author of 28 books and major research studies including the multi-book series: E-Sphere, Future View, Future Talk, and Global Talk. For the latter of these he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won the Eugene Emme literature award. He is a Member of the International Academic of Astronautics, a Fellow of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, and an associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is also the former head of the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program at the University of Colorado and the former Director of Strategic Planning at Intelsat. He is also the author of over three hundred journal articles and encyclopedia entries and prepared and delivered a number of Congressional testimonies particularly in the area of wireless and satellite telecommunications. He has appeared on national television and radio shows as an expert on satellite communications, telecommunications, and futurism for NPR International, The Jim Lehrer News Hour, the BBC, ABC and CBS Nightly News. He is on the editorial boards of The Journal of Space Communications, Earth Space Review and Space Policy. He has lectured at many universities and international conferences around the world, often as a keynote speaker. He earned his BS from the University of Tulsa in 1965, his MS from New York University in 1967, and his Ph.D. from Georgetown University in 1973.