dR sIAN pROCTOR

kYENOTE SPEAKING TOPICS

How Solving for Space, Solves for Earth
How to Never Give Up
What Mars Taught Me About Leadership
The Future of Food
Climate Change
Living past the Anthropocene

Dr. Sian Proctor has always had her eyes on the sky, and her determination and never-give-up mindset culminated in her becoming the first black woman in history to pilot a spacecraft.

Back in 2009, she was among 47 finalists whom NASA selected from 3,500 applications. The space agency chose nine new astronauts that year. Dr. Proctor was not one of them. She applied twice more and was not even among the finalists.

Then in 2021, SpaceX’s Inspiration4 was the first all-civilian orbital mission to space, for which she was selected due to her role as founder of Space2Inspire, a program which encourages people to use their unique strengths and passions to enact change in the world. The journey from crew selection to space was chronicled by Netflix’s five-part docuseries 'Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space', the first limited series to ever be shot in space. 

Dr. Proctor has also served as an “analog astronaut” on Earth in many missions simulating life on the Moon and Mars. In 2013, Dr. Proctor was one of six people who lived for four months in a small building on the side of a Hawaiian volcano, part of an effort financed by NASA to study the isolation and stresses of a long trip to Mars. She used such an opportunity to investigate food strategies using shelf-stable ingredients for cooking during long-duration space flight, and in turn, created a Meals for Mars Cookbook. As a food sustainability expert, she emphasizes the applicability of solutions for space living to our problems on earth, noting “if we solve for space, we solve for Earth.”

Dr Proctor’s immersive presentations engage the audience to discusses leadership, maximising opportunities, and exploration both on Earth and far beyond. In her speeches she emphasises the need for J.E.D.I. space- making exploration and the world a Just, Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive place for all.

One of the top women of color adventurers, educational leader & inspirational speakers in the U.S, Dr Proctor has appeared in numerous science shows including Genius by Stephen Hawking & Strange Evidence.

Selected Press
New York Times
Forbes
Wall Street Journal
National Geographic
SXSW

Followers
Twitter 70,500 followers
Instagram 47,000 followers

Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission To Space | Official Trailer | Netflix

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