Ray Williamson

Ray Williamson is Research Professor of International Affairs and Space Policy in the Space Policy Institute, focusing on international issues in environmental security, Earth observation satellite policy, dual-purpose space technologies, and the commercialization of space-related technologies. He has conducted numerous in-depth studies of space technology and policy.

From 1979 to 1995, he was a Senior Associate and Project Director in the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress. While at OTA, Dr. Williamson was Project Director for more than a dozen space policy reports, including:

	U.S. Russian-Cooperation in Space (1995);
	Civilian Satellite Remote Sensing: A Strategic Approach (1994);
	Remotely Sensed Data: Technology, Management, and Markets (1994);
	Global Change Research and NASA's Earth Observing System (1994);
	The Future of Remote Sensing from Space: Civilian Satellite Systems and Applications (1993);

Dr. Williamson was Project Director of Technologies for Prehistoric and Historic Preservation (September 1986). He was an OTA Fellow from 1979-1980.

Dr. Williamson is also a faculty member of the International Space University (ISU), Illkirch, France, teaching general space policy, and issues in commercial remote sensing for the ISU Masters of Space Studies and Summer Session programs. In 1990, Dr. Williamson was Senior Fellow in the Space Policy Institute, George Washington University, where he participated in the study, Documents of the Space Age, a documentary history of the U.S. space program. In 1991, he was named Adjunct Professor at George Washington University.

Ray Williamson received his B.A. in physics from the Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Maryland, and spent two years on the faculty of the University of Hawaii studying diffuse emission nebulae. He taught philosophy, literature, mathematics, physics and astronomy at St. John's College, Annapolis for ten years, the last five of which he also served as Assistant Dean.

Dr. Williamson is a contributing editor to the journal Space Policy. He teaches space policy and international relations, writes extensively on space policy issues, and testifies before the U.S. Congress. He is the editor of: Commercial Observation Satellites: At the Leading Edge of Global Transparency, with John C. Baker and Kevin O’Connell (RAND and ASPRS: 2001), Dual-Purpose Space Technologies: Opportunities and Challenges for U.S. Policymaking (Washington, DC: Space Policy Institute, July 2001), and Space and Military Power in East Asia: The Challenge and Opportunity of Dual-Purpose Space Technologies, with Rebecca Jimerson (Washington, DC: Space Policy Institute, December 2001). He is also the author or editor of seven books on archaeology, historic preservation, and American Indian astronomy, culture, including Living the Sky: The Cosmos