Ioana Cozmuta

Dr Ioana Cozmuta is the founder and CEO of G-SPACE Inc, a Silicon Valley-based New Space Company developing an end-to-end AI-powered software platform to design materials and manufacturing processes optimized for gravity-free environments. Prior to founding G-SPACE, Dr. Cozmuta helped enterprises such as Business Finland, Orange Silicon Valley, and DuPont to evaluate emerging opportunities in the New Space Market and co-founded a ZBLAN in-space manufacturing company. She is on the original IAC providing due diligence to Spaced Ventures, a crowdfunding company supporting New Space startups, and co-founded the Nexus Outer Space for All brain trust to expand New Space opportunities to civil society.

From 2003 and 2018, Dr. Cozmuta worked at NASA in roles such as Commercial Space Partnerships Strategist, Industry Innovation and Microgravity Lead, Physics-based Risk Assessment Lead for mission entry, descent, and landing; Material Response Lead for the Mars Science Laboratory Heatshield instrumentation; Margins Lead for Constellation Orion, etc. where she successfully infused state-of-the-art technology to modernize existing NASA tools, built multi-industry models and pushed the boundaries of innovation.

Dr. Cozmuta’s interdisciplinary academic background includes a bachelor’s in Physics and a master’s in Biophysics and Medical Physics from the University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj Napoca, Romania; a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands; a Postdoctoral Study in Materials Modeling and Simulation, Chemistry Department at CALTECH and a Research Assistant in Genome Technology, School of Medicine at Stanford University. Her research spanned indoor air quality, building materials durability, DNA sequencing, thermal protection systems, hypersonic reentry, microgravity, and in-space manufacturing as well as market, economics, commercialization, and entrepreneurship. She received numerous awards from NASA, NSF, and Air Force and has authored and co-author over 200 scientific articles and technical reports. Dr. Cozmuta is an elected member of the prestigious International Academy of Astronautics, and previous Chair of the world-renowned Gordon Research Conference series.  She is a TEDx speaker and a passionate, and inspirational lecturer about the Space-Earth Confluence in technology, education, and business.