Bijal (Bee) Thakore

Bijal "Bee" Thakore has joined The Space Institute's Board of Directors as its youngest member. 

Bee is the Regional Coordinator for youth space activities in the Asia Pacific region for the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) in support of the United Nations Programme on space applications. She serves as a liaison with local leaders and helps run regional projects with which youth groups and young students and professionals can work in an international environment and build their leadership skills. Bee leads the 50 Years Visions Project at SGAC.

Bee also works as a technical consultant for a number of global clients, including working with LEGO System A/S as a Global Client Development Officer for LEGO Play for Business.

Representing the activities of young people internationally as a liaison for the 2009 International Year of Astronomy, Bee is also a member of the Special Advisory Committee to the International Astronautical Federation on Space and Society. Bee's goal is to help make humanity a multi-planet species.

Past positions include serving as a Teaching Associate for the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, where she furthered her interdisciplinary research in Robotics and In-Situ Resource Utilization for space exploration. She also worked for the X PRIZE Foundation, where she devised prize concepts to bring radical breakthroughs in attempts to solve some of the world's biggest challenges such as eradicating poverty and providing clean drinking water to all.

Bee began her career at Airbus UK in the Composites Research Unit and worked for Rolls-Royce Defence Aerospace Ltd as part of the experimental flight test team for the Adour Mk 951 Jet Engine.

She received her Masters in Aerospace Engineering with honours from University of Bath in the UK and is an alumna of the International Space University Masters in Space Management and Space Studies Program.