Dr. James Kass
James Kass, Ph.D. is Geopolitical Analyst and Director of James R Kass Space Consulting, Development Manager at the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, and Founder and CEO at Enablance.
James has more than four decades of experience across multiple domains, multi-disciplinary system analysis, and working with academic, industrial, inter-governmental, and international agencies across Western- and Eastern Europe and North America.
Much of his work revolves around the domain of human spaceflight, where technical, scientific, and operational work involved delicate teamwork and complex negotiations across international teams and organizations as different players competed for limited resources on a space mission. He trained the first German, Dutch, and Swiss astronauts and worked with many others from Soyuz/Salyut and Apollo/Skylab to the Space Shuttle, Spacelab, MIR, and the ISS. This work took him to space centers across Europe, Russia, Canada, and the USA. He was also intimately involved in several long-duration isolation and space mission simulations.
In 2024, James joined the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety as Development Manager, where he is promoting the goals of supporting space safety, sustainability and security, the IAASS activities, the association’s journal (JSSE) and publications, fostering corporate membership, and conference sponsorship.
In 2010, James began his Kass Space Consulting Company. He analyzes problems, taking into account multi-dimensional perspectives. Having lived in six countries across three continents, James understands the critical cultural challenges faced in negotiations and bridge-building.
Since 2012, James has been Associate Consultant and Interface Manager between F Moser Consultants and ESA, where he works on multiple projects including Lessons Learned, ESA Education Office, Artificial Intelligence, Data Management, and Knowledge Management.
In addition to the scientific and technical fields covered by his education and professorship spanning nuclear physics, neurophysiology, psychology, and spaceflight, he has delivered talks and lectures to international institutions, such as the European Commission, universities and conferences, in domains such as Lessons Learned, Conflict Handling, and the current challenges facing geopolitics in today’s polarized and conflictual world.
Since 2014, James has been an Advisor to the Health Center of Excellence, a global health platform of thousands of MDs and users worldwide. HCE is defined as interconnected, collaborative health centers of professional knowledge and skills that have common applicability to the benefit of all nations worldwide.
James was previously, between 2015 and 2024, an Expert Agent for Delta-Utec Space, working on Innovative Technologies and Applications. Between 2014 and 2024, he was an Expert Agent for E-Volzione, representing the SME e-voluzione for their services in LabVIEW, for which they are certified architects.
James R Kass Space Consulting was an exclusive agent vis-Ã -vis the European Space Agency. (ESA). Dr. Francesco Sacerdoti, CEO of E-Voluzione, has previously carried out work for ESA, working on four Space Shuttle missions, for one of which, the STS-107, James managed the payload, Biopack, for which Sacerdoti designed the user interface.
In the same period, he was also an Expert Agent for Xignum. They produce an elegant solution for configuration, project, and document management. James was their exclusive agent vis-a-vis the European Space Agency.
Between 2012 and 2024, James was an Advisor for Mars One, a private, apolitical organization whose intent was to establish a colony on Mars by integrating existing, readily available technologies from industry leaders worldwide.
In 2000, James began his long career at the European Space Agency as a Senior Scientist and Engineer in the Human Spaceflight Programme. He was a Senior Consultant on eHealth and Telemedicine at the European Astronauts Center (EAC) and for ESA’s Integrated Applications Programme (IAP). Towards the end of his career, he worked as a Contractor at the Agency until 2012.
James earned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics in 1978 from the University of Leeds, UK with his thesis Search for e/3 Quarks in Extensive Air Showers. Read A Search for e/3 Quarks Using the Leeds Cloud Chamber. He earned his Master’s Degree of Science in Physics in 1972 from the University of Michigan, USA. In 1968, James earned his Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Physics and Mathematics from Sir George Williams University, Canada.
After he graduated in 1978, James started his career as Research Scientist at the Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie, where he worked on nuclear physics experiments with the Van de Graaf accelerator.
In 1980, James continued at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany in the Department of Physics, working on Biophysics experimentation and electromyography, before joining the Faculty of Medicine of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, in the same year, where he worked as Research Scientist until 1988.
His work included neurophysiology, sensory perception experimentation, project management for European Space Sled experiments, design of a Sled physiological helmet, crew procedures and crew training, ground operations and communications with the crew on Spacelab, and parabolic flight campaigns to test experiments.
In 1988, James moved to the private sector and joined OHB Systems as Senior Engineer, working on human space flight facilities, operations, simulations, studies, and research for almost 8 years.
He continued at Pankosmos and Migrata, working on human physiology experiments before joining ESA in 2000 and becoming Adjunct Associate Professor at Concordia University, lecturing on applied psychology for groups in the domain of human spaceflight.
James has authored numerous publications in scientific and technical journals and made presentations at many international scientific symposia, congresses, workshops, and European Commission and national government working groups.
He has lectured at the International Space University, Strasbourg & Barcelona, Concordia University, Montreal, and University College London. In recent years, James has frequently given keynote speeches and presentations at universities, trade fairs, and industrial platforms and chaired or co-chaired international symposia.
Read Mars One: Humanity’s Next Great Adventure: Inside the First Human Settlement on Mars.
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