Ana Pires is a Researcher at INESC TEC’s Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems. She is involved in several sustainable sea/marine mining projects, geotechnologies, geoengineering, and georesources. Her research is focused on Space-Earth-Sea interaction, Space Resources, Space Mining, geotechnics, geophysics, and the development of geo-technologies or geo-robotics for Space exploration.

She was also the first Portuguese woman to finish with success the Scientist-Astronaut Program, under the framework of Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere) supported by NASA.

Ana Pires is passionate about exploring extreme environments. She is a Specialist Diver (SSI Certification) and she was also selected to be part of the main crew of the “Pegasus” team to carry out an analog mission in May of 2023 in the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), located in Utah (USA), owned, and operated by the Mars Society.

Since 2018 she has made efforts to promote human space flight, astrogeology, technology, robotics, and STEAM outreach activities in Portugal. Currently, she is the Co-Chair of Knowledge Management of “Space For All Nations|SFAN”, an initiative developed under the scope of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS).

The event takes places online via Zoom. If you wish to attend, please register at bit.ly/wiespace. Attending the event is free of charge and open to everyone, regardless of their background or gender.

IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) is a global network of IEEE members and volunteers dedicated to promoting women engineers and scientists, and inspiring girls around the world to follow their academic interests in a career in engineering and science. If you wish to find out more about IEEE WIE, please visit https://www.linkedin.com/company/ieee-wie-germany/.