Dr Nikita Chiu

IAS Fellow at Hatfield College, October-December 2022

Dr Nikita Chiu is Senior Lecturer in Innovation Policy at the University
of Exeter. In 2019, she was named Ad Astra Distinguished Fellow in Robotic and Outer Space Governance by the Space Engineering Research Center at USC. She was a Research Fellow in Robotics and Outer Space Technologies at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, and is a former Research Affiliate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge. An International Relations scholar by training, Dr. Chiu taught Foreign Policy and Global Governance first in Hong Kong, then in Tallinn and the UK. Prior to her career in Technology Governance, she read Technology Policy at St Edmund's College at the University of Cambridge, and gained her PhD from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva in 2014.

Dr Chiu is a mentor for Space4Women, a network organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs(UNOOSA) to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She was selected as one of "20 under 35" future leaders to watch by the Space & Satellite Professionals International in 2019 for her work on space sustainability. She is also a former recipient of the Ernst Mach Grant. Dr Chiu's ongoing research investigates the dynamics between technological advances and governance, with a focus on understanding the socio-economic, policy, and security impact brought by the increasing commercialization of robotics, quantum, and space technologies.

Together with Dr James Osborn (Physics), Dr Atanu Chaudhuri (Business), and Professor Jim Ridgway (Education) at Durham, Dr Chiu seeks to advance interdisciplinary research in the area of global space governance with the IAS supported Enabling Responsible Space Exploitation project. Through a series of inter-sectoral engagements with industry, governments, and academia, Dr Chiu’s IAS fellowship will aim to strengthen collaborations between space clusters across the UK, as well as consolidate UK’s international leadership and regional development in the space sector.

Additional Information

Space4Women page
https://space4women.unoosa.org/content/2021-mentor-nikita-chiu