Dr. Cassandra Steer is the Deputy Director - Mission Specialist with the ANU Institute of Space (InSpace). Her current research focuses on space law and space security, including space situational awareness and space traffic management, and the application of the law of armed conflict and use of force in outer space. She has been a consultant to the Australian Department of Defence, the Canadian Judge Advocate General’s Office and the U.S. Department of Defense on these issues. She has begun research on integrating lessons from Indigenous governance into space governance, and has created new courses delivered through the ANU College of Law and the National Security College.

Dr. Steer was formerly Acting Executive Director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Ethics and Rule of Law, Executive Director of Women in International Security - Canada, Executive Director of the McGill Institute of Air and Space Law, and Senior Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam. In 2011 Dr Steer was a Fulbright Scholar, and she has a degree in philosophy (UNSW); undergraduate and Masters degrees in law and a PhD in International Criminal Law, all from the University of Amsterdam.

Dr. Steer is a member of the Australian Space Agency's technical Advisory group for Space Situational Awareness, and is the Canadian representative member on the International Law Association Space Law Committee, an Associate Expert on the Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Operations, and a member of the International Institute of Space Law.