Joseph E. Meany, Ph.D. / President
Dr. Joseph Meany is a science consultant and President for The Interstellar Research Group. Dr. Meany received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from The University of Alabama, where he designed and synthesized single-molecule nanocircuits. He has 15 years’ experience in the chemical and materials sciences, and has since worked across government, academia, and private industry. His professional publications touch on nano-circuitry, instrumentation for space propulsion development, and new methods for 3D printing. He is coauthor of the book Graphene with NASA scientist, Les Johnson. With the IRG, he is a co-producer of the podcast series, From Here to the Stars. He lives in Atlanta, GA and can be found around the internet as Crimson Alkemist.
James M. C. Birchfield / Secretary
International Podcast Producer and Owner of Videos, Vocals, and Adventures, LLC, James Birchfield is a Master of his field in Content Creation for multimillion dollar companies. Staying up to date on the latest trends, and managing Production teams in many different industries. James brings his unique insights to the Interstellar Research Group with the mission of inspiring or supporting, the first interstellar travelers.
Lauren Randolph / Treasurer
Lauren Randolph is an accounting manager and Treasurer of the Interstellar Research Group. Lauren received her Bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University where she interned her junior and senior year at the Georgia Senate Budget Office during the state legislative session. She has over 10 years experience in accounting in both the private and public sectors, working for small businesses and large corporations alike. Lauren lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Douglas Loss / Director at Large
Doug is originally from central Pennsylvania; he has worked in the IT field, principally in network administration and security, for the past 30 years. He organized and ran an international internet organization called SEUL/edu, which fostered and promoted the development and use of Open Source software in schools around the world. He handed operation of that organization off when its focus became less IT and more education (this change in focus was intended and encouraged from the beginning), as he wasn’t an educator.
From 1977 until the early 2000s he attended and eventually organized The Asimov Seminar, a yearly, four-day-long retreat at a conference center in upstate New York. Isaac Asimov, the noted science fiction author, was the star of the Seminar and its main draw until his death in 1992. Each year the Seminar would explore a different topic, always with some (sometimes vague) connection to science fiction. The topics were always approached interactively, with the Seminar attendees assuming roles that would allow them to examine the questions associated with that year’s topic on a personal basis. Doug currently lives in Maryville, TN with his wife Ruby.
Laura Montgomery / Director at Large
Laura Montgomery specializes in advising clients on regulatory space law, commercial space transportation, and the Outer Space Treaties. She teaches space law at Catholic University’s law school, and has testified to both Space Subcommittees of the U.S. Congress on matters of regulation and international obligation.
Ms. Montgomery spent over two decades at the FAA’s Office of the Chief Counsel, where she worked on commercial space transportation. Highlights from her time there include representing the FAA at the United Nation’s space legal subcommittee and chairing an inter-agency working group on space property rights for the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.
She received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Also, she writes science fiction.
Stephen Fleming / Director at Large
Stephen Fleming serves as Vice President, Strategic Business Initiatives, at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he is focused on improving the university’s engagement with the private sector.
Stephen is active in the “alternative space” industry; he is an investor in ten private aerospace companies and is a founding member of the Space Angels Network. He also maintains a consulting business at Boostphase. Mr. Fleming served on the boards of the Technology Association of Georgia and of Culture Connect, a not-for-profit fostering cultural fluency between immigrants and the community at large. He is a former board member of the Spiritual Living Center of Atlanta, and of Tech High School, a charter high school that emphasized science, math, and technology in urban Atlanta.
