Prof. Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz (United States)
Director
current term: 2018-2021
Prof. Gabrynowicz is Professor Emerita of space law, Director Emerita of the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law, Univ. of the Mississippi Law Center and the Editor-in-Chief Emerita, Journal of Space Law. Prof. Gabrynowicz was a founding faculty member of the Space Studies Department at the University of North Dakota, where she also served as its Director of Graduate Studies.
She has taught space law since 1987 and currently lectures at various universities including the University of Vienna, the University of Warsaw, the Beijing Institute of Technology School, the China University of Political Science and Law, and the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 2014 and 2015 she was invited by the Subcommittee on Space of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology to testify regarding the legality of asteroid mining and remote sensing law. She is currently a member of two U.S. Federal Advisory Committees, and one advisory committee for the National Academy of Science.
Prof. Gabrynowicz briefed former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gayle Norton as part of the Secretary’s preparation for the Earth Observation Summit. Prof. Gabrynowicz briefed Frank A. Rose, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Space and Defense Policy, U.S. Department of State on legal aspects of orbital debris. She was the organizer and chair of the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee for the National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive.
She was a member of the Advisory Board for the Permanent Court of Arbitration for the Draft Arbitration Rules on Disputes Relating to Outer Space Activities and has presented to the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. The UN Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) invited Prof. Gabrynowicz to lecture on space law at all of its space law capacity building workshops for government officials and policymakers and she is the lead author for UNOOSA’s remote sensing law curriculum. In 1999, the IISL invited Prof. Gabrynowicz to write and present the remote sensing law position paper at UNISPACE III. In 2001 she was awarded the Women in Aerospace Outstanding International Award. In 2011 she was awarded the IISL Distinguished Service Award. In 2014, Prof. Gabrynowicz received the China Institute of Space Law 1st International Service Award. In 2016, she was awarded the IISL Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2017, her work was recognized by the International Astronomical Union by naming an asteroid “(9002) Gabrynowicz”
