Cecilia studied industrial design at the Lund Institute of Technology. In 1999 she was chosen to take part in a project called Star Design that the school was running, a project that took her to NASA and the Johnson Space Center in Houston. At NASA Cecilia and three students did their diploma work together and worked closely with astronauts on designing the interior of X 38 – the Crew Return Vehicle – planned as a space ambulance for the International Space Station (ISS), and her interest for space grew.
Having finished her education, she started Umbilical Design in 2001, a company that now has been running for over 15 years and that has had collaborations with ESA and NASA since its inception. Today Cecilia is a leading Swedish expert within the space sector and a successful entrepreneur. Cecilia is creative and strives to constantly thinking outside the box.
Umbilical Design has worked with a wide range of large companies over the years such as Volvo Cars, Electrolux, Scania and Björn Borg, and active in industries such as forestry industry, steel industry, truck and car industry, and the construction industry.
Cecilia Hertz has been successful in showing how design, technology and material from the space industry can be transferred to sustainable solutions. What Cecilia Hertz call the “Astronaut lifestyle” inspires to increased sustainability both through technology and behaviour changes. It also inspires to a new mindset. Technology developed for space can serve as a driving force in developing and transferring sustainable solutions to terrestrial challenges. Space technology transfer is a potential growth engine and an innovative force for industry.
Cecilia Hertz is a frequently booked speaker and panellist at seminars, and has recently launched a book called “SPACE – and everything we can learn from it”. One of Cecilia's other assignments is Manager of the Space week, in the Swedish pavilion at EXPO2020 in Dubai, a unique global platform with 190 attending countries. Themes as Space for Wildlife and Space for Future Food production will be in the program.
