Angelo Vermeulen

With a passion for concepts of interstellar travel, Angelo Vermeulen brings together science and art to rethink our future, both in deep space and here on Earth. He loves to challenge established ideas on how people live and work together, and how they shape the world. Through concrete experiences and anecdotes he draws his audience into a highly personal captivating journey. His TED Talk 'How to go to space, without having to go to space' has been viewed over a million times. With a PhD in biology, activities in the fields of systems engineering, architecture, and design, and with community-based art projects such as Biomodd and the Merapi Terraforming Project, Vermeulen is a true contemporary polymath. In 2013 he was Crew Commander of the first NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars simulation in Hawai'i. Currently he is pursuing a second PhD at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, working on the topic of interstellar travel. He is co-founder of SEAD (Space Ecologies Art and Design), a transdisciplinary collective aiming to reshape the future through hands-on experimentation and critical reflection. Vermeulen is adviser for ESA's AstroPlant citizen science project, holds positions in space technology companies IPStar and LIQUIFER Systems Group, and is a Senior TED Fellow.

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