Frank White is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a Rhodes Scholar. He earned an M.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University.

He is president of the Human Space Program, a nonprofit organization with the mission of ensuring a sustainable, ethical, and inclusive evolution of humanity into the solar ecosystem. Frank also acts as curator of materials for the SpaceTech and AI practices at Intro-act, a financial technology company.

His best-known work as an author, The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution, is considered by many to be a seminal contribution to the field of space exploration. A film called “Overview,” based largely on his work, has had more than 8 million plays on Vimeo.

Since the first edition of his book on the subject was published in 1987, “the Overview Effect” has become a standard term describing the spaceflight experience. The fourth edition of The Overview Effect was published in 2021 by Multiverse Publishing.

Frank’s book on the Apollo program, The New Camelot: Quest for the Overview Effect, offers a radical new interpretation of John F. Kennedy’s approach to the lunar missions that culminated with the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.

White considers himself to be a “space philosopher,” and has long advocated developing a new philosophy of space exploration. His book on this topic, The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect, was published in 2019. In it, he asks the fundamental question, “Why has the evolutionary process brought humanity to the brink of becoming a spacefaring species?”

In Cosma, he shares the idea of “the Human Space Program” as a “central project” that will engage all of us in the process of becoming “Citizens of the Universe.” This concept has now become the nonprofit Human Space Program, cited above.

Frank is a frequent speaker at conferences that focus on space exploration, space development, and Large-Scale Space Migration.

White has also written about Artificial Intelligence, and his book on the subject, The (Neo) Singularity is Here! anticipated many of the developments in AI that are creating a worldwide paradigm shift today.

White has taught in Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education since 1995, and is a professor and dean at Kepler Space University.