Dr. Carmen Köhler is a mathematician, entrepreneur, and analog astronaut whose career began in a hair salon.. After the courage to reinvent herself, she went on to study mathematics and earn a PhD in physics, before joining the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) as an analog astronaut, conducting field research in Mars-analogue environments on Earth and leading the Forum’s AI Space Group. She is the founder and managing director of P3R GmbH, a company specialising in meteorological software and Earth observation services, and leads the Extreme Wildfire and Atmospheric Modeling Group at the Center for Forest Science and Technology of Catalonia (CTFC).

At VDS, Carmen brings together the worlds of space, AI, and weather intelligence — sharing how satellite imagery is transforming how we understand our planet, how artificial intelligence is reshaping both space exploration and Earth observation, and what it truly means to pursue an impossible goal. Her ultimate ambition? To fly to the Moon.