Sir Martin has a BSc in electronics and PhD in radio engineering from the University of Surrey.
As founder and Executive Chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), he has pioneered rapid response, low-cost and highly-capable small satellites utilizing modern terrestrial COTS devices to ‘change the economics of space’ that stimulated the so-called ‘Newspace’ initiative.
SSTL has designed, built, launched and operated in orbit 61 nano, micro, and mini-satellites—including the International Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) and the first Galileo navigation satellite (GIOVE-A) for ESA and all the subsequent 34 navigation payloads for the operational European Galileo constellation.
SSTL has grown to 500 staff with annual revenues exceeding £100M and exports over £1Bn.
As Chairman of the Surrey Space Centre and a distinguished professor at the University of Surrey, Sir Martin leads a team of 100 faculty and doctoral researchers investigating advanced small satellite concepts and techniques, working closely with SSTL.
SSC led the RemoveDebris mission in 2018 demonstrating the active removal of space debris.
Sir Martin has been appointed OBE and knighted by HM The Queen, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Physics, and has received the prestigious International von Kármán Wings Award from CalTech/JPL.
In 2014, he was identified by the Sunday Times as one of the UK’s top 20 most influential engineers and in Debrett’s 2017 list of the 500 most influential people in the UK.
He holds the amateur radio call sign G3YJO with interests spanning HF to microwaves.
He is Chairman of AMSAT-UK and is regularly active on 80, 60, and 40 metres as a member of RSARS and VMARS.
