2024 CME STEM Leadership Awardee for Advancing Extraordinary Exploration

Richard Garriott is the President of The Explorers Club. He is a founding father of the videogame industry and the commercial spaceflight industry, a flown astronaut, and the first explorer to have explored pole to pole, orbited the Earth, and reached the deepest point in the ocean. He built leading gaming companies including Origin Systems, authored the Ultima Series and coined the modern use of the term “avatar.” He cofounded Space Adventures, the first company to arrange space flights for private citizens and is the sixth private astronaut to live aboard the International Space Station. The son of a NASA astronaut, he became the first second-generation astronaut, served on NASA advisory Council, and has been a key leader in civilian and commercial space through institutions such as the Challenger Center for Science Education and the XPRIZE Foundation. Richard is an avid explorer, having traveled all 7 continents, orbited the Earth aboard the International Space Station, dived to the deepest point in our oceans, and most recently summited Kilimanjaro. He is author of the book “Explore/Create.”