ASLI Book Café with Dr. Adriana Marais
Dr. Adriana Marais will deliver a talk and launch her new book titled "Out of this World and into the Next." This will be followed by an interactive session.
Dr Adriana Marais has a background in theoretical physics, her PhD and postdoctoral research focused on quantum effects in biology and the origins of the building blocks of life in space. Her PhD and research in quantum biology on photosynthesis and the origins of the building blocks of life in space won awards from L'Oreal-UNESCO and the Royal Society of South Africa among others. She is a 2016 alumna of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Physics Program for young scientists. She is currently developing a blockchain-based economic system for off-world environments towards a second PhD. Her popular science writing on topics from quantum biology to space exploration has been widely published including by Nature and HuffPost.
She is currently a scientific advisor on space resources with the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator, chair of space sciences at Tod’Aérs Aeronautics and Space Research, and a researcher at the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking at Stellenbosch University and the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences, both in South Africa. She is also Faculty at the Singularity University and Duke Corporate Education where she contributes on exploration-driven innovation to executive programs globally.
Adriana is a Director at the Foundation for Space Development Africa, and also the Head of Science for the Foundation’s Africa2Moon Project, currently shortlisted for launch to the lunar south pole. Africa2Moon will be Africa’s first Moon mission, and potentially the world’s first lunar radio telescope, performing new science not possible from Earth.
She was previously Head of Innovation at SAP Africa between 2017 and 2019, and a member of the South African Government Ministerial Task Team on the 4th Industrial Revolution. In 2020, she was among 5 global finalists for Women in Tech’s the Most Disruptive Woman in Tech Award, and in 2024 a finalist for RMB’s Africa’s Fearless Thinker Award.
In 2019, Adriana left her position as Head of Innovation at SAP Africa to found Proudly Human, and she is currently leading the organisation’s Off-World Project, in preparation for extreme conditions on Earth and beyond.