Ofer Lapid has more than 25 years of experience in aerospace and space program management and technology development. He is the Co-founder and CTO of Space-Nest, an Israeli space startup incubator. He holds both a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, and a Master’s of Science degree in electronics systems engineering and management, from Tel Aviv University.

He is an alumnus, faculty and trustee of the International Space University (ISU), representing the Israel Space Agency. He was appointed to the Specialized Panel of Scientific Experts pursuant to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Outer Space Rules since 2016. Currently, he is the Program Manager of the ULTRASAT astrophysical observation satellite at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in collaboration with CalTech and JPL, and an Expert Evaluator for the European Commission Horizon 2020 Space Technologies R&D program, for the Innovation Authority (formerly Office of Chief Scientist at the Israel Ministry of Economy), as well as the Israel Space Agency. He also volunteers as a mentor for SpaceIL the Israeli GLXP lunar lander mission.