Dr Adriana Marais has a background in theoretical physics, her PhD and postdoctoral research focused on quantum effects in biology and the origins of the building blocks of life in space. Adriana is currently a researcher at the University of Stellenbosch and the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences, both in South Africa, and an expert at the Singularity University in California. Since 2017, Adriana is a Director at the Foundation for Space Development Africa, and also the chief scientist for the Foundation’s Africa2Moon Project, currently shortlisted for launch to the lunar south pole. Africa2Moon will be Africa’s first Moon mission, and potentially the world’s first lunar radio telescope, performing new science not possible from Earth. She is also a member of the committee on Space Resources of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator. In 2019, Adriana left her position as Head of Innovation at SAP Africa to found Proudly Human, and she is currently leading the organisation’s Off-World Project, in preparation for extreme conditions on Earth and beyond. Her book ‘Out of this world- and into the next’ is soon to be published in China, and the rest of the world in 2025 by Profile Books.

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Adriana is a researcher at heart, with a passion for topics from quantum physics and philosophy of science, photosynthesis and bio-inspired technologies, the origins of life, the origins of the building blocks of life in space, asteroid resources and technologies to extract these, to team dynamics in extreme environments and blockchain technologies towards a novel economic system for resource-constrained environments. Her PhD and research in quantum biology on photosynthesis and the origins of the building blocks of life in space won awards from L’Oreal-UNESCO and the Royal Society of South Africa among others. She is a 2016 alumna of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Physics Program for young scientists. She is currently developing a blockchain-based economic system for off-world environments towards a second PhD. Her popular science writing on topics from quantum biology to space exploration has been widely published including by Nature and HuffPost. She is currently the scientific moderator on space resources with the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator, chair of space sciences at Tod’Aérs Aeronautics and Space Research, and a research fellow at the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking at Stellenbosch University.

Adriana believes in technology for social good. She was Head of Innovation at SAP Africa between 2017 and 2019, and is currently a Director at the Foundation for Space Development Africa. The Foundation is developing Africa’s first mission to the Moon, the Africa2Moon Project. She is a member of the South African Government Ministerial Task Team on the 4th Industrial Revolution and Faculty at the Singularity University and Duke Corporate Education where she contributes on exploration-driven innovation to executive programs globally. In 2020, she was among 5 global finalists for Women in Tech’s the Most Disruptive Woman in Tech Award.

From winning first prize at the local Science Expo for her project ‘Martian City‘ at age 13, in 2015, Adriana was selected as one of 100 international astronaut candidates with the Mars One Project. When the startup declared bankruptcy in 2019, she founded Proudly Human. She has recently visited some of the harshest and most remote locations on Earth, from deserts in Africa and the Middle East, all the way to Antarctica, on location scouts for Proudly Human’s Off-World Project. The Project is a series of off-grid habitation experiments in the most extreme environments on the planet, in preparation for life on the Moon, Mars and beyond, as well as a sustainable future here on Earth. Proudly Human is currently preparing to secure a major broadcaster for the documentary series to accompany the experiments, ‘Mission: OFF-WORLD’.

She has given hundreds of talks to audiences on all seven continents of this planet, in settings from corporates to ashrams to TEDx events, been featured in media interviews and panel discussions around the world, as well as in documentaries including AOL’s ‘Citizen Mars’, and CNN’s ‘Africa’s Space Race’. She is currently completing a book ‘Mission Off-World: The Allure of the Unknown’, describing how through technological advancement and an evolved perspective of reality and our place in it, expanding beyond Earth will enable us to become better stewards of our home planet and equip us for the beginning of our journey into the stars.