Dr. Sandeep Gopalan (Photo, as it appears on www.law.asu.edu)

The Governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, appointed Dr. Sandeep Gopalan, a law professor at the Arizona State University College of Law, to the Arizona Aerospace and Defense Commission, a press release said.

An expert on the legal aspects of the financing of satellites and aircraft, Dr. Gopalan is a member of the American Bar Association’s Air and Space Law Forum, the release added.

Dr. Gopalan is the only person of Indian origin who will join such an important Gubernatorial Commission. He has conducted extensive research on a new Convention that is expected to infuse huge amounts of financing into the space and aviation sector. The entry of private enterprises into the space sector will be facilitated by this international law.

An alumnus of the National Law School of India in Bangalore, Dr. Gopalan graduated with a Gold Medal in Constitutional Law and was elected to a Rhodes Scholarship. Thereafter, he went up to Oxford and obtained B.C.L. and D.Phil. degrees. His doctoral thesis was on the harmonization of national commercial laws, and he demonstrated that international commerce demands international legal instruments. Prior to starting his academic career, Gopalan was a Wall Street investment banker and attorney.

(Compiled from a press release by Nishant Arora)