Space technology visionary Jaan Praks awarded the 2025 Espoo Ambassador title

Praks is a respected expert in the field of space technology. Together with his research group, Praks researches and develops space technology, small satellites for scientific measurements and methods for mapping the Earth. Under Praks' leadership. Finland's first satellites, Aalto-1 and Aalto-2 were launched into the sky in 2017, and later also satellites Foresail-1 and Foresail-1 prime.

Praks gathered a young team around the Aalto-1 project, sparking a new wave of space enthusiasm in Finland and initiating the manufacture of commercial satellites in Finland. Finland has since become Europe’s leading small-satellite nation, particularly in the development and production of Earth-observation satellites. Several Finnish remote-sensing satellite startups — including ICEYE and Kuva Space — have originated from Praks's team. Today, Finland’s space sector is thriving, and in Espoo’s Otaniemi campus alone, as many as a dozen satellites are built each year.

International networks and conference work

Praks's selection as Espoo Ambassador 2025 is supported by his active role in scientific organisations and industry conferences. Praks is a respected expert speaker and also leads international cooperation in several EU and satellite projects. Praks serves as the Chairman of the Finnish National Committee for Radio Science, URSI, and the Chairman of the Finnish National Committee for Space Research, COSPAR.

Jaan Praks is the founder and Chairman of the Winter Satellite Workshop, the biggest space tech and remote sensing local conference in Scandinavia. The event brings over a thousand space-technology experts, professionals and students to Aalto University’s Otaniemi campus in Espoo each year. The congress theme, remote sensing and space technology, plays a key role in addressing sustainability challenges in space and on Earth.

People and cooperation are the most essential resources of science. I want to contribute to the development of science and the world by bringing people together around topics that interest them. Scientific leaders in research are typically organisers of community and cooperation. If you want the top of science and technology to Espoo, then you also need to organise top events in different fields here, Praks explains his own passion for organising congresses.

Professor Praks is the 15th Espoo Ambassador. The nomination was announced on December 2, 2025, at an invitational event held at Aalto University's Dipoli, hosted by the City of Espoo, Aalto University and Visit Espoo.

The selection of the Ambassador of the Year is part of Visit Espoo’s Espoo Ambassador programme, an essential element of the organisation’s congress marketing efforts. From the very beginning, the programme has aimed to highlight the value and wide-ranging impact of international scientific congresses, while providing researchers and scientists with support in organising these important events.