the boards of several companies throughout his career, including Hyperloop and Cogswell Polytechnical College. He has also won several awards in his field, including Economist "No Boundaries" Innovator of the Year, the Neil Armstrong Award for Aerospace Achievement and Leadership, the World Technology Award, presented by the World Technology Counsel, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Innovation, among others. International Space University In 1987, during his third year of medical school, Diamandis cofounded International Space University with Todd Hawley, Walter Anderson, Christopher Mau and Robert Richards. Diamandis served as the managing director and chief operating officer of the university until 1989. Today, ISU offers a Space Studies program and two accredited Master of Space Studies degrees. It has grown into a $30 million university campus headquartered in Strasbourg, France. International MicroSpace, Inc. Diamandis cofounded Microsat Launch Systems, later renamed International MicroSpace Inc., in 1989 during his fourth year of medical school and served as the company's CEO. IMI designed a small launcher called Orbital Express for taking 100-kg payloads to low-Earth orbit, collaborating with Bristol Aerospace for the manufacture. The company won a $100 million SDIO contract for one launch plus nine options and was sold to CTA Inc of Rockville, MD in 1993 for $250,000. Diamandis joined CTA for one year as VP of Commercial Space Programs post-acquisition. Constellation Communications In 1991, Diamandis founded Constellation Communications, Inc., one of five low-Earth orbit satellite constellations for voice telephony. The company was funded to deploy an equatorial ring of 10 satellites to provide communications primarily to Brazil and Indonesia. Constellation was sold to E-Systems and Orbital; Diamandis remained director until 1993. X PRIZE Foundation In 1994, Diamandis founded the X PRIZE Foundation after the failure of International MicroSpace, Inc and reading Charles Lindbergh's The Spirit of St. Louis. He serves as chairman and CEO of the foundation. X PRIZE was created to fund and operate a $10 million incentive competition intended to inspire a new generation of private passenger-carrying spaceships. The prize was announced on May 18, 1996, in St. Louis, MO without any purse money or any teams. The prize was ultimately funded through an insurance policy underwritten by the Anousheh and Hamid Ansari Family and renamed the Ansari X PRIZE in their honor. The $10 million competition attracted 26 teams from seven countries as teams and was won on October 4, 2004, by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a team