Invigning ESA Phi-Lab Sweden

CEO at RISE since October 2023. Previously Executive Vice President and Head of Infrastructure, AFRY, CEO County Council of Stockholm and several positions TeliaSonera Group. Board member of SJ and Polhem Infra. Mech Eng and Honorary Dr Technical University of Luleå.

Philip is Head of the ScaleUp Programme Division at ESA’s Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness Directorate. He oversees the growth of ESA-enabled space commercialisation networks (BICs, Brokers, PhiLabNET) and advises ESA programmes on market development and commercialisation. Before joining ESA in 2023, he was a senior civil servant in the UK and Scottish Governments, serving as Deputy Director of Space Programmes and Deputy Director of Investment Finance.

Chiara has worked for the past three years at the intersection of industry, academia, and the public sector, managing projects and conducting research at the interface between space and AI. With experience from four universities, she has led international scientific teams and contributed to collaborative research environments. She has co-developed six astrophysical codes in C/C++, Fortran, and Python, two of which are open source. Chiara has also mentored students at bachelor, master, and PhD levels.

Anne is currently working at the Swedish Governmental Innovation Agency, Vinnova. She has a multi-faceted background in the private sector, both from larger and smaller businesses, from established companies and from startups, in operations and as board member, in R&D and in Sales, as entrepreneur and as advisor to other entrepreneurs. The common denominators have been tech and innovation in various forms: Light wave communication, Mobile, Devices, etc.

Christer is Deputy Director General and Director of Technology at the Swedish National Space Agency, where he has worked since 2003. He has a background as Development Manager at Allgon Systems and Development Engineer at Ericsson. Christer holds an MSc in Microelectronics from KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Currently, Gabriele Meoni is an Innovation Officer at ESA in the ESA Φ-lab and Advanced Concepts and Studies Office, with research interests spanning edge computing for space, AI, neuromorphic and quantum computing for Earth Observation. He is also co-chair of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Earth Science Informatics Technical Committee. 

Bernardo began at Xerox PARC, creating a system that used email exchanges to ID intra-org communities of practice, and his work on distributed smart matter enabled control of both smart matter and office climate. As Sr. Fellow and lab Director at HP/HPE, he shaped disruptive technologies that drove market leadership. At CableLabs, he applied AI to networking and led a quantum initiative. His recent work includes using LEO satellites as a “cloud in the sky” for distributed caching for LLMs.

Dr. Yifang Ban is Professor and Director of the Division of Geoinformatics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and Associate Director for Dissemination and Impact at Digital Futures. Her research focuses on Earth observation big data, machine learning, and environmental change monitoring to support sustainable development. She has published extensively and is ranked among the world’s top 2% of scientists in Geological and Geomatics Engineering by Stanford/Elsevier (2020–2023). 

Linda is currently R&D Manager at IRnova AB. She previously worked at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a Microdevices Engineer, focusing on development and evaluation of infrared detectors. Optical characterization, including photo luminescence, minority carrier lifetime, absorption and reflection measurements. She holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and a M.Sc in Physics from Linköping University.

Marcus is the CEO of PandionAI. From global monitoring to local action, PandionAI help organizations make informed decisions by delivering global actionable Alerts from satellites that seamlessly integrate with their existing systems. Based in Stockholm (Sweden), PandionAI is a innovative AI company in the forefront of space industry, with bold ambitions, strong market potential, and scalable technical solutions that have the potential to impact on a global scale.

Ahmed is a PhD student in Embedded Systems at Uppsala University, with a Master’s degree from KTH. He completed his thesis at RISE SICS, and his background includes engineering internships at KEO International Consultants.