Dr. Leroy Chiao is a Chinese American NASA astronaut and International Space Station commander. As a long-time Committee of 100 member, he speaks at the C-100 25th Anniversary Summit relaying his personal journey of chasing dreams to go to space.

Dr. Chiao currently serves as the special advisor for human spaceflight to the Space Foundation while holding appointments at Rice University and the Baylor College of Medicine. He has worked extensively in both government and commercial space programs, and has held leadership positions in commercial ventures and NASA. Chiao has extensive experience as a NASA Astronaut and prior to that, as a Research Engineer. Dr. Chiao is a fellow of the Explorers Club, and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and the Committee of 100. Dr. Chiao studied Chemical Engineering, earning a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983. He continued his studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, earning his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in 1985 and 1987.

In September 2006, Chiao became the first American to visit the Astronaut Research and Training Center of China. There, he met the first two national Chinese astronauts, Yang Liwei and Fei Junlong.