Aim High. — Dr. Z. Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen: International speaker. Leader of ETH Zürich | Space. Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA from 2016 to 2022. Previously Professor of Space Science and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan. Founder of the largest Entrepreneurship programme at American Universities - the Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship - and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics. Keynotes, Interviews, and Media Features: - Documentary (German with English subtitles) - Netflix Movie about Thomas and JWST - Understanding the World Through the Lens of NASA (Summit) - Pushing Boundaries through Science (GT Conference) - James Webb Telescope (Washington Post) Excellence is not the absence of errors, but constant improvement. Humans have to learn that we can lose and still be successful. It's much better to achieve 80% of a really ambitious goal, than to achieve 100% of a modest one. - Culberson Always Talked About Shrimp (Off-Nominal) - Adventures in Astrophysics (The Knowledge Project) - Risk of Spectacular Failure (Harvard Business Review) - Wann findet NASA Leben im Weltall - in German (Die Zeit) - Why do we go back to the Moon? (Initially posted on Scientific American) - Future astrophysics funding requires both ambition and accountability (Initially posted in Nature) - Innovation During Difficult Times Thomas H. Zurbuchen, known in the space community as Dr. Z, is a Swiss-American astrophysicist, leader, and innovator. Since June 2023, he is the leader of the ETH Space initiative. His stated goals are to build the world's best Master’s programme in space science and technology, improve on the entrepreneurship programme to enable more Swiss startups, and to assist space sciences. The Master's programme took on its first students in September 2024. Prior, he was the longest continually serving Head of Science at NASA from October 2016 through 2022, the leading program worldwide for doing science in and from space. During this time, he drove all aspects of leadership in space science, leading 130 missions with 37 launches. His achievements include bringing the international James Webb Telescope to launch, overseeing two Mars landings - the Perseverance rover and the first controlled flight away from the Earth with the Ingenuity helicopter - and developing the Parker Solar Probe, a mission to touch the Sun. He also conceived and led the Earth System Observatory, an advanced multi-platform observatory that creates a 3D holistic view of the Earth, from bedrock to atmosphere, and oversaw humanity’s first successful attempt at moving a celestial object, using a spacecraft impact. Dr. Zurbuchen was born in Switzerland in 1968, became the first college graduate in his family, studied physics at the University of Bern with a minor in mathematics, and was awarded his PhD in 1996 with a thesis entitled “Turbulence in the interplanetary medium and its implications on the dynamics of minor ions”. In that same year, Dr. Zurbuchen left for the US and joined the University of Michigan as a research associate, where, in 2008, he was made Professor of Space Science and Aerospace Engineering. His scientific research focuses on solar and heliospheric physics, experimental space research, and space systems. He is also well known for his work on innovation and entrepreneurship. During his time at University, Dr. Zurbuchen co-founded the Center for Entrepreneurship, which was recognized as the US leading undergraduate program. Over the course of his career, Dr. Zurbuchen built multiple space instruments, such as the MASS sensor on NASA’s WIND spacecraft, launched in 1992, and the Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer, for which he served as team leader, on NASA’s Messenger, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. Due to his achievements, Dr. Zurbuchen is a sought after international expert in innovation and leadership of pioneering organizations. He chaired the US National Academy of Sciences committee, for example, that produced a report on CubeSats in 2016, widely credited for diversifying Mission portfolios and tech approaches for science and Earth observations. Dr. Zurbuchen has received numerous awards. Some of them, selected by relevance: - 2004: US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers - 2018: Heinrich-Greinacher-Prize of the University of Bern - 2020: NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal - 2021: US Presidential Rank Award - 2021: Honorary doctorate degree (Dr. of Science) of Northern Michigan University - 2022: NASA Distinguished Service Medal - 2022: Wernher von Braun Distinguished Science Award - 2022: Honorary doctorate degree (Dr. h. c.) of the ETH Zurich - 2023: Innovator des Jahres, Wirtschaftswoche - 2023: Honorary doctorate degree (Dr. of Science) of Rochester Institute of Technology - 2023: Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) - 2023: Excellence in international cooperation award, International Astronautical Federation - 2023: Honorary doctorate degree (Dr. of Science) of University of Michigan - 2024: Aerosuisse Award - 2025: von Braun Award for Excellence in Space Program Management, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) - 2025: Stratton Prize for outstanding career achievements in fostering intercultural understanding between Switzerland and the United States - 2026: AIAA Public Service Award - 2026: Prix Suisse, for exceptional contributions to Switzerland - It is a lot more safe to keep a rocket on the ground, than shooting it into space. But, that stops every space mission. We have to take risks to achieve new goals. - We can learn a lot when we look at the night sky and when we observe nature elsewhere. - Art, intuition, imagination, and creativity are incredibly important tools to get new ideas. - For big, important projects, trust is paramount. - Finding fossil life on Mars shows that life is a natural consequence.