The Karman Project is a global one-year fellowship program for leaders in the space industry, founded in 2020. The organization is based in Berlin, Germany.
Description The Karman Project is designed to foster trust, independent dialogue, cooperation, and diplomacy among their fellows. Fifteen leaders in the space industry aged 15 to 45, who have achieved outstanding professional accomplishments in space, are selected each year from some of the most impactful space organizations and companies in the world.
The organization itself is a nonprofit, independent, with global headquarters in Berlin, Germany. The Karman Project has partnered with the Oxford Space Initiative at Saïd Business School to strengthen the relationships between committed individuals coming from the research, business, venture, government, and industry sectors.
, Jean-Jacques Dordain, former director-general of the European Space Agency, heads the board of the Karman Project.
History The Karman Project was founded in 2020 by Ke Wang, Hannah Ashford, and Artur Koop.
The annual fellowship was hosted in Dubai, UAE in 2021, and in Normandy, France, in 2022.
The Maldives Space Research Organization hosted Karman in Malé, with the Hithadhoo School and Six Senses Laamu in 2023. In 2024 it was hosted in Bulgaria by EnduroSat.
In June 2025, Karman announced the world's first cultural payload to the International Space Station, sending seeds to space of culturally important crops. These included: Egyptian cotton Armenian pomegranate Nigerian egusi melon Pakistani wheat
In October 2025, Karman launched the Space Peace Prize, to champion critical peace efforts in the space domain. In the same year, the annual fellowship week was hosted in Bangalore, India.
Fellows Every year up to 15 fellows are selected to participate in the program, with an additional runner-up class denoted as Karman Pioneers. Many of the fellows have notable histories, which lends to their selection and leadership development within the industry. The following table lists the Karman Fellows by year. +Name Fellowship Year Country Chris Boshuizen 2020 USA/AustraliaChristopher Richins2020 USAFabien Jordan2020 SwitzerlandFeng Young2020 ChinaKatherine Bennell-Pegg2020 AustraliaLynette Tan2020 SingaporeMarc Marzenit2020 SpainPrateep Basu2020 IndiaRafal Modrzewski2020 Poland/FinlandRogel Mari Sese2020 PhilippinesThomas Pesquet2020FranceTemidayo Isaiah Oniosun2020 NigeriaTom Segert2020GermanyYoav Landsman2020Israel Pierre Bertrand 2021FranceJingqi Cai2021ChinaVanessa Clark2021USA/AustraliaDavis Cook 2021South AfricaPriyanka D. Rajkakati2021India/FranceClarisse Iribagiza2021RwandaJoe Laurienti2021USAJessica Meir2021USA/SwedenAlessandro Golkar2021ItalyJonathan Hofeller2021USAThomas Oehl2021GermanyYuanyuan Peng2021ChinaNahum Romero2021MexicoNeha Satak2021USA/IndiaSo-yeon Yi2021JapanJoseph Abakunda2022RwandaSiti Nur Aazzah Abdul Aziz2022BruneiHazzaa Al Mansoori2022UAENelly Ben Hayoun-Stepanian2022FranceTheresa Condor2022USADavid Dana2022FranceMelania Guerra2022Costa RicaMartin Langer2022AustriaTricia Larose2022CanadaMike Lindsay 2022USAXin Liu2022ChinaBalachandar Ramamurthy2022USAErika Wagner2022USAGrier Wilt2022USADongkun Xia2022ChinaNorilmi Amilia Ismail2023MalaysiaLiang Chen2023ChinaJoan Chesoni2023KenyaEmma Gatti2023ItalyJacob Malthouse2023CanadaRaffaele Mauro2023ItalyRaycho Raychev2023BulgariaSara Sabry2023EgyptBarret Schlegelmilch2023USAJenni Sidey-Gibbons2023CanadaAnastasia Stepanova2023RussiaMani Thiru2023AustraliaTrent Tresch2023USAAoife Van Linden Tol2023IrelandLuis Zea2023GuatemalaAbeer S. Al-Saud2024Talga/Saudi ArabiaTuva Atasever2024TurkiyeSalah Eddine Bentata2024AlgeriaBianca Cefalo2024Italy/UKTao Chen2024ChinaRichelle Ellis2024USAOlayinka Fagbemiro2024NigeriaAisha Jagirani2024PakistanAlena Kuzmenko2024RussiaKavya K. Manyapu2024India/USAWill Pomerantz2024USALucie Poulet2024FranceManny Shar2024UK/PakistanJake Thompson2024UKArmen Askijian2025USAVenkata Sai Kiran Chakravadhanula2025IndiaIan Christensen2025USAMariam Fardous2025Saudi ArabiaMohammad Iranmanesh2025Iran, BelgiumFani Kallianou de Jong2025GreeceKartik Kumar2025NetherlandsLucie Low2025UKMatthieu Lys2025FranceAlexandre Mangeot2025FranceCharles Mwangi2025KenyaShawna Pandya2025CanadaAndrew Ratcliffe2025UKMinoo Rathnasabapathy2025Australia/South AfricaAmelie Schoenenwald2025GermanyAmal Albinali2026BahrainMeganne Christian2026UKGabriele de Canio2026ItalyRosso Dieng2026SenegalLucas Fonseca2026BrazilJulia Gottfriedsen2026GermanyShuai Huang2026ChinaEiman Jahangir2026USAGay Jane Perez2026Philippines Ioana Petrescu2026RomaniaChris Sembroski2026USAMasako Shiba2026USAShubbanshu Shukla2026IndiaAleksandra Stankovic2026USASheila Xu2026USA
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