Prof. Alissa J. Haddaji is the founder, president and director of The Space Consortium at Harvard & MIT, and of Space Week at Harvard. She is a faculty researcher in Space Law, Policy and Ethics. She created Harvard College, Harvard Law School, Boston College Law and University Paris-Saclay "M2 New Space" ’s first Space Law, Policy and Ethics curriculum.
Prof. Haddaji specializes in International Space Threat Management (Planetary Protection/Planetary Defense). In 2014, she joined the International Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) as their Planetary Protection Project Officer, before becoming in 2017, the lead coordinator of the United Nations’ SMPAG Legal Working Group on Planetary Defense. In parallel to her Consortium, teaching and SMPAG work, she currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the International Astronautical Federation’s Near Earth Object & Planetary Defense committee and as a United Nations Space4Women mentor.
Previously to her Planetary Defense work, Prof. Haddaji was a senior researcher in space economics at Harvard Business School, a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and a visiting scholar at the GWU Space Policy Institute. She holds a PhD in Science and Technology Studies, and Master’s Degrees in Planetary Science (spe. oceanography), History/International Relations, Political Science, Law and Socio-Anthropology, from Brown University, La Sorbonne University and Bordeaux 1 University.
