The Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) in partnership with University of Johannesburg (UJ) hosted Dr Greg Olsen at a Roundtable held at UJ on the 15th March 2013.

Dr Olsen is an American entrepreneur, engineer and scientist who, in October 2005, became the third private citizen to make a self-funded trip to the International Space Station. Dr Olsen was the co-founder and chairman of Sensors Unlimited Inc., a company developing optoelectronic devices such as sensitive near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave-infrared (SWIR) cameras. One of Sensors Unlimited’s major customers is NASA. Currently, Olsen is President of GHO Ventures, LLC, and is also a physics professor at Rider University in New Jersey, United States.

The roundtable was opened with welcoming remarks by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, Prof Ihron Rensburg.