Professor Sir Martin Sweeting OBE, FREng, FRS, Executive Chairman - Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), Director - Surrey Space Centre (SSC)

Born in 1951 in London and with a PhD in Electronic Engineering & Communications, Sir Martin pioneered the concept of rapid-response, low-cost and highly-capable small satellites utilising modern terrestrial COTS devices to ‘change the economics of space’. Following BSc and PhD degrees in Electronic Engineering gained at the University of Surrey, in 1985, after building and launching the UK’s first two research microsatellites at the University of Surrey, he formed a spin-off University company (SSTL - Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd) which has now designed, built, launched and operates in orbit a total of 34 nano, micro, and mini-satellites – including the international Disaster Monitoring Constellation and the GIOVE-A Galileo satellite for ESA.

By 2010, SSTL has grown to 300 commercial staff with a £300M order book and total export sales of over £234M. Currently 8 satellites are under construction (for Nigeria, Russia, Canada and Kazakhstan) and SSTL is also manufacturing 14 payloads for the Galileo navigation payload for ESA/EC.

Sir Martin is also Director of the academic Surrey Space Centre, leading a team of 90 faculty and doctoral researchers investigating advanced small satellite concepts and techniques. In 1995, Sir Martin was awarded the OBE and the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal In 1996, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 2000 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and also awarded the Royal Society’s Mullard Prize. Sir Martin was knighted by HM Queen in 2002 for services to the small satellite industry. In 2006, he was appointed a Distinguished Professor at the University of Surrey, invited to sit on the BNSC Space Advisory Council and to join the ESA Advisory Committee on Human Spaceflight Microgravity & Exploration. More recently Sir Martin was awarded the Royal Institute of Navigation Gold Medal in recognition of the successful GIOVE-A mission for the European Galileo system and awarded the Sir Arthur Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. In 2010 Sir Martin has been awarded the Faraday Medal by the Institute of Engineering and Technology, and an Elektra Lifetime Achievement Award by the European Electronics Industry.

Sir Martin holds the callsign G3YJO.

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