Maxwell Zhu is a second-year MPP candidate at the Jackson School of Global Affairs specializing in space policy. Last summer, he worked for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation covering space and science policy. At Yale, he organizes the Science Policy Hill Day program and serves as the lead Teaching Fellow for GLBL 280: The Global Domain and Space Security. 

Before Yale, Maxwell supported the U.S. Space Force as a public sector consultant implementing digital transformation and technology adoption programs. Additionally, Maxwell evaluated hundreds of space, quantum, and AI/ML technology solutions from the private sector to help the federal government establish public-private partnerships. Previously, Maxwell worked with the government relations team at Blue Origin.

Maxwell holds a joint bachelor’s degree in physics and government from Harvard, where his senior thesis on the political and economic governance of asteroid mining received the Bennett Prize for best undergraduate thesis on U.S. public policy.