Yang GAO

About

Professor Yang Gao FIET FRAeS, is a world-renowned space roboticist with 20+ years of R&D and space mission experience including European Space Agency (ESA)’s ExoMars, Proba-3 and lunar VMMO; UK's CLEAR, MoonLITE and Moonraker; and China's Chang'E-3. Before joining HKUST in mid-2025, she has been a Professor of Robotics and Head of the Centre for Robotics Research at King's College London, where she maintains active ties and collaborations. Founder of the multi-award-winning Space Technology for Autonomous and Robotic Systems Laboratory (STAR-LAB, est. 2007), she has led projects for ESA, UK Space Agency, UKRI, EU, and industry companies. Her honours include the Mulan Award for Contributions to Science, Technology and Engineering (2019) and Distinguished Global Leadership Award (2025), and research under her leadership has won IAF 3AF Edmond Brun Silver Medal (2013), COSPAR Outstanding Paper Award (2016), ESA SysNova Challenge First Prize (2018), IEEE-ICRA Space Workshop Wiley Poster Award First Prize (2020), and Sino-UK Entrepreneurship Competition First Prize (2022), among others. At HKUST, she has founded the Centre for AI Robotics in Space Sustainability (CAIRSS) to pioneer AI robotics solutions for orbital debris mitigation, autonomous space systems, and in-situ resource utilization for future crewed/uncrewed missions.