Professor Mark J. Sundahl of ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹Ù·½¿ª½±'s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Is an International Authority on Space Tourism and the Commercial Space Industry

CLEVELAND – Private space travel is making headlines with the success of new companies such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic – and Dr. Mark J. Sundahl, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Administration at ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹Ù·½¿ª½±'s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, is an internationally recognized expert on this rapidly growing industry.

The U.S. Secretary of Transportation recently appointed Sundahl to the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), which advises the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation regarding new regulations for private space activity.

"One of the more exciting things we're involved with is the development of new standards and regulations governing commercial spaceflight," said Sundahl, whose Space Law course at ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹Ù·½¿ª½± is one of the few such courses in the country. "For the first time, private companies are on the verge of suborbital and orbital space tourism – and are doing other things that only governments have done before, such as sending resupply missions to the International Space Station. The law is lagging behind the technology, so the FAA is taking steps to properly regulate this new activity."

Sundahl has served as the Assistant Secretary of the International Institute of Space Law, headquartered in Paris, and was a member of the working group charged with drafting a new international treaty on the finance of satellites and other space assets: the UNIDROIT Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment. In 2012, he coordinated the 55th Annual Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space in Naples, Italy.

Sundahl has lectured around the world on space law and his writings on the subject have appeared in leading academic journals. He has also made numerous media appearances in The New York Times and other outlets.

Sundahl holds a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and a Ph.D. in Classics from Brown University. Prior to joining the faculty at ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹Ù·½¿ª½±, he was an Associate in the International Transactions Group at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in San Francisco.