Cecilia Hertz is an industrial designer and the founder of Umbilical Design (established 2001), a pioneering company dedicated to transferring space technology and design thinking to sustainable innovation on Earth. Over more than two decades, she has collaborated with both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) on projects focused on interior and life-support design for space environments, where human well-being, functionality, and sustainability must coexist under extreme conditions.
Her career began at Lund University’s Faculty of Engineering (LTH), where she conducted her master’s thesis at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. This experience shaped her lifelong mission: to bring insights from space exploration down to Earth and apply them to everyday innovation challenges.
Through Umbilical Design, Cecilia has established and led Space Technology Transfer Sweden, an initiative connecting the space sector with industries such as energy, automotive, construction, healthcare, and fashion. Her work builds bridges between research, design, and business, showing how methods developed for the most extreme environments can drive systemic change toward resilience and circularity.
As an international speaker and advisor, Cecilia Hertz is recognized for her visionary perspective on design and sustainability. She inspires organizations and leaders to adopt what she calls the mindset of “urbanauts” — innovators who translate the principles of astronaut life into sustainable urban living and future-oriented enterprise.