Russ Strand
- Actor
Russ Strand grew up in Didcot, Oxfordshire, England with his brother
and two sisters. He studied Aeronautical Engineering at Farnborough
College of Technology (Surrey University) as an undergraduate and
achieved a BSc with Honors (2:1). He went on to achieve an MSc from
Cranfield University in Astronautics and Space Engineering and stayed
on to pursue a PhD in Continuum Mechanics. During his time at Cranfield
Russ became affiliated with the Cranfield University Rocket Society
(CURS) and later went on to become the society's president. With CURS,
Russ developed a passion for all things rocket related and went on to
build his own rockets, challenging himself to work towards achieving
the coveted Level 3 certification with the United Kingdom Rocketry
Association (UKRA). In 2012 he was elected to the UKRA council and was
presented with the opportunity to work with the BBC in 2013 for an
episode of CBeebies Nina and the Neurons. He appeared on the 'Space
Rockets' episode as 'Russ The Rocket Man' and even got a mention from
Luke the Neuron, a show first! In the summer of 2013, Russ attempted
the 'big one', his UKRA Level 3 launch with a rocket he built in 7
days. The launch of the 3.5m, 0.3m wide 'KAOS' rocket on June 1st 2013
was a huge success and the whole event, including the build was filmed
for a feature called 'Die Liebe eines Engländers zu seiner Rakete'
('The Love of an Englishman for his Rocket') on Servus TV's TM Wissen
program which aired in October 2013.