Alessandro Golkar

Alessandro Golkar is Full Professor and Chair of Spacecraft Systems at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where he leads research on distributed satellite systems, spacecraft AI, and nanosatellite constellations. He holds a Ph.D. from MIT (2012) and co-teaches the “New Space Economy” course for MIT Professional Education.

From 2012 to 2022, Golkar helped establish Russia’s Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, shaping its MIT-inspired model. He also served as VP of Concurrent Engineering at Airbus (2017–19), leading R&T strategy and the Corporate Technology Office’s design facility.

Golkar has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has 2,300+ citations on Google Scholar. His work on CubeSats, federated satellite systems, and quantitative architecture modeling is widely cited. He has contributed to NASA JPL’s Mars Sample Return and ESA’s Copernicus constellation planning.

A Karman Fellow, Aspen Italy Junior Fellow, and Senior Member of IEEE and AIAA, he is also Associate Editor for INCOSE’s Systems Engineering Journal and IEEE J‑MASS. Golkar brings a global perspective, having worked across five countries and advised startups in Europe’s New Space sector.