Hybrid Networks and Orbital Data Centers
Rebekah Davis Reed, PhD, JD, LLM
Associate Director
Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center
Moderator
Rebekah Davis Reed, PhD, JD, LLM, is the Associate Director in the Belfer Center’s Program on Emerging Technology, Scientific Advancement, and Global Policy. In this role, she leads the day-to-day operational activities of the program, oversees the fellowship programs, leads the creation of new initiatives, and partners with the Director to set the strategic direction for the program identifying challenges and research priorities at the boundary of emerging tech and geopolitics.
Rebekah joined the Belfer Center in May 2025 after nearly three decades in the federal government. Rebekah spent most of her career at NASA, where she served in international relations, policy, legal, and technical leadership roles at NASA Headquarters and the Johnson Space Center. In addition to leading Management Integration and Planning for the Space Shuttle Program and serving on the agency’s Return to Flight Planning Team, she served as Counsel to the Flight IRB; Chief of the Space and Occupational Medicine Branch; Program Manager, Crew Health and Safety Program; and Associate Director of the Exploration Integration, Architecture, and Science Directorate at the Johnson Space Center. In her final position at NASA, she was the principal international advisor to NASA’s Associate Administrator for Exploration and served as Chair of the multilateral International Space Exploration Coordination Group. Rebekah began her career at the Foreign Agricultural Service, where she served on U.S. delegations to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and Food and Agriculture Organization; she also coordinated the sub-cabinet level Food Security Working Group, which developed the United States’ first global road map for food security.
Rebekah received a Ph.D. in diplomatic history from Georgetown University, where she was a University Fellow and Davis Teaching Fellow. She also holds JD and LLM in health law from the University of Houston Law Center, where she was a member of the Order of the Barons and the Order of the Coif, and was an adjunct professor of legal negotiations.
Jon Markman
Acting Chief of Satellite Programs and Policy Division
FCC
Jon Markman is the Acting Chief of the Satellite Programs and Policy Division at the Federal Communication Commission's Space Bureau, where he oversees rulemakings and licencing for satellite systems. Jon has been at the Commission for 6 years, previously in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Before joining the Commission, he worked in private practice representing a variety of clients across the telecom industry. He is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan Law School.
Brian Monnin
Co-founder, Chief Commercial Officer
Sophia Space
Brian Monnin is a serial entrepreneur and veteran product growth leader (ex-Microsoft, ex-Intel, ex-WeTransfer) whose career has consistently anticipated and shaped major waves in digital technology, from early internet content to today’s space-based computing infrastructure. As co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Sophia Space, he now helps civil, defense, and commercial customers move AI workloads into orbit, driving product strategy and go-to-market for modular orbital compute “TILE” systems that promise more sustainable, efficient processing of massive data streams beyond Earth. His role builds on more than two decades of creating platforms that simplify complex workflows and move large media and data files where professionals need them most.
Jianping Pan
Professor
University of Victoria
Dr. Jianping Pan is a professor of computer science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He received his Bachelor's and PhD degrees in computer science from Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, and he did his postdoctoral research at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He also worked at Fujitsu Labs and NTT Labs. His area of specialization is computer networks and distributed systems, and his current research interests include protocols for advanced networking, performance analysis of networked systems, and applied network security. He received IEICE Best Paper Award in 2009, Telecommunications Advancement Foundation's Telesys Award in 2010, WCSP 2011 Best Paper Award, IEEE Globecom 2011 Best Paper Award, JSPS Invitation Fellowship in 2012, IEEE ICC 2013 Best Paper Award, NSERC DAS Award in 2016, IEEE ICDCS 2021 Best Poster Award and DND/NSERC DGS Award in 2021, and has been serving on the technical program committees of major computer communications and networking conferences including IEEE INFOCOM, ICC, Globecom, WCNC and CCNC. He was the Ad Hoc and Sensor Networking Symposium Co-Chair of IEEE Globecom 2012 and an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. He is a senior member of the ACM and a Fellow of the IEEE.
Al Tadros
Chief Technology Officer
Redwire
Al Tadros is the Chief Technology Officer of Redwire. In this role, he is focused on making strategic investments that support Redwire’s customers, advancing technology development and commercialization, and maintaining a nimble and collaborative technical culture. With three decades of experience in space systems engineering and as an aerospace executive, Al is a thought leader in AI-enabled autonomy, machine vision, rendezvous and proximity operations, and robotics. He has a proven track record in maturing satellite and space systems programs for exploration, national security, and commercial missions.
Previously, Al was Chief Growth Officer and Executive Vice President of Space Infrastructure at Redwire. In this role, he oversaw the company’s long-term growth strategy and business development activities, and was responsible for advancing development, increasing adoption, and building momentum for Redwire’s mission-enabling capabilities.
Prior to Redwire, he served as Vice President of Space Infrastructure and Civil Space at Maxar Technologies, where he led significant innovation in next-generation spacecraft design and space infrastructure, integrating robotics and in-space satellite manufacturing, servicing, and assembly capabilities. Over the course of his career at Maxar, Al contributed to 13 missions and launch campaigns, many of which deployed cutting-edge communications and remote sensing systems. Al has worked with both commercial enterprises and government agencies to develop space systems for communications, satellite servicing, remote sensing, and exploration.
Al serves on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Advisory Committee on Excellence in Space (ACES), providing guidance on efforts to advance U.S. leadership in the global commercial space industry. He also leads Redwire’s involvement in Stanford University’s Center for AEroSpace Autonomy Research (CAESAR), which is working to advance autonomous reasoning capabilities in space with artificial intelligence and machine vision. As an authority in robotics, Al also holds patents in the field of attitude control systems and was responsible for early telerobotics research for the International Space Station.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
