Vidvuds (Vid) Beldavs Chairman of the Board of Riga Photonics Centre advancing light sciences and technologies for Latvia; futurist. Board member of ACES Worldwide. Convenor of the following SSUNGA77 sessions:

• Recovery of Ukraine’s science and innovation capacity after the fossil fuel war
• Managing peatlands in Latvia to meet UN sustainable development goals and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050
• Pan-African initiative to build research and innovation capacity to achieve SDG7 for Africa
• Recasting the Space Agenda - Convened by Alliance for Collaboration in the Exploration of Space
•  Space science, technology and sustainable civilian development

Advisor to the African Network for Solar Energy (ANSOLE), Member of Board of Directors of Alliance for
Cooperation in the Exploration of Space, Co-Founder of the International Lunar Decade Working Group; Chair of the International Conference on Cooperation in Space Technologies 2014 (ICCST) that promoted cooperation in space between the Baltic Sea Region and Africa; initiator and consultant to the International Baltic Economic Commission (IBEC) organized by Hudson Institute for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to develop an action plan to transition to market economies in 1990-1992. Prior service included business trends advisor for Cummins a global manufacturer of power systems, Vice President – Intelligent Resources International, Executive Director Technology Transfer Society, other roles including publishing, and ounded several not-for-profit organizations – US-Africa Literary Foundation to promote African writers, New Leaf-New Life (criminal justice reform Bloomington, Indiana), Futuristics Study Group (community futures forum in Columbus, Indiana). American citizen semi-retired in Latvia.