José Pedro Ferreira is a Fulbright and NASA doctoral fellow pursuing a doctorate in Astronautical Engineering at USC where he studies the environmental impacts of spacecraft demise in the atmosphere. He is experienced in aerospace engineering, having served as the lead systems engineer for an Earth observation small satellite, and in aerodynamics, having been an university lecturer in aeronautics and conducted research at NASA Ames and TU Delft. José served as a delegate in the 57th and 58th Scientific and Technical Subcommittees of the UN COPUOS, is the recipient of the ESA Space for Sustainability award in 2023, and the managing editor for the 2024 special issue of the Journal of Space Safety Engineering. He is also an honoree of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Portugal class of 2024. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Scientific American, CBC/Radio-Canada, RTP Portugal, and Deutschlandfunk radio.