Jeffrey Smith

ASGSR President

• First Joined ASGSB/R in 1993 as a Graduate Student
• NASA (Retired – 2026) Twenty-eight years of Federal Civil Service, spanning research, technology development and leadership in areas of space biology, physical sciences, advanced exploration systems, spaceport systems and architecture for Deep Space Logistics commercial delivery service missions, supporting NASA’s human and robotic exploration goals.
• Continuing Work as a NASA Contractor, supporting Artemis, Deep Space Logistics, Biological and Physical Sciences, Gateway, Moon to Mars and whatever comes my way
• Primary Research and Development Interests: inspire the next generation of space explorers, with a focus on spaceflight systems engineering, enabling a vibrant commercial supply chain in deep space, supporting space life and physical sciences research and developing capabilities to move human exploration toward Earth Independence

Michael Pecaut

ASGSR President

• Professor & Vice Chair of the Div of Biomedical Engineering Sci, and Program Director of Neuroscience, Systems Biology & Bioengineering at Loma Linda Univeristy
• Recipient of ASGSR Thora W. Halstead Young Investigator Award and the Orr-Reynolds Distinguished Service Award. Served as the Student Board Liaison while a member on the ASGSR governing board
• He has 30+ years advancing gravitational and space life sciences at the interface of aerospace engineering, radiobiology, and immunology
• Supported science integration and operations for 13 Space Shuttle, 2 Mir, 6 KC-135, and 6 ISS missions examining immune dysregulation and astronaut health risks
• Participant in research at the NASA Ames Research Center Centrifuge Facility, Brookhaven National Laboratories NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL), and the Johnson Space Center’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA)
• Member of the National Academies of Science Decadal Survey Steering Committee for Biological and Physical Sciences in Space 2023-2032 guiding national space life-science priorities

Ken Shields

ASGSR President

• Ken serves as a Sr. Director for Business Development at the Sierra Space Corporation
• Responsible for leading business growth and asset utilization for Sierra Space Destinations, including the Orbital Reef Commercial Space Station, which is a Sierra Space-Blue Origin partnership under NASA’s Commercial Destination Free-Flyer program

Elizabeth Blaber

ASGSR President

• ASGSR Thora Halstead Early Career Investigator Award
• Deciphering the role of the bone marrow microenvironment on wound healing
• Understanding the role of spaceflight and aging on the brain-liver-gut axis
• Understanding the role of bone marrow stem cells and the bone marrow microenvironment in development of liver disease
• Deciphering the impact of mechanical load and radiation on bone, joint, and immune health

Steven Collicot

ASGSR President

• Collicott, a professor of aerospace engineering in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was selected to receive an award by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program giving him the chance to fly into suborbital space and back on a Virgin Galactic craft while conducting a zero-gravity experiment.
• He has taught a zero-gravity flight experiment course for many years. As part of the course, Collicott and some of his students experience weightlessness while conducting experiments aboard a parabolic aircraft flight, dubbed the “Vomit Comet.”
• His interest include: experimental fluid mechanics, low-gravity fluid dynamics, optical diagnostics, and applied optics

Jamie Foster

ASGSR President

• Orr Reynolds Distinguished Service Award
• Long-time editor of our Gravitational and Space Journal
• The overall objective of Dr. Foster’s research program is dedicated to examining the interactions between microbial communities and their surrounding environments to improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that microbes use to adapt and respond to changes in the environment including host-microbe interactions and space biology.

Jamie says, “…We were still deep in the pandemic, it was exciting that we were able to meet in person [in Baltimore] again to share our research…”

Douglas Matson 

ASGSR President

• ASGSR Fellow
• Douglas Matson focuses on the science of engineered materials and on training Tufts students as leaders in the production, processing, and manufacture of metal, plastic, ceramic, and biomaterial products.
• He has concentrated on three main areas of research: solidification and space processing, advanced materials, and engineering education outreach and service learning. 

Kevin Sato

ASGSR President

• ASGSR Fellow
• ASGSR Orr Reynolds Distinguished Service Award
• Kevin had to skillfully pivot the 2020 ASGSR meeting to an on-line format because of COVID.
• Program Scientist for Exploration, Biological and Physical Sciences Division, NASA Science Mission Directorate
• Long-time supporter of student participation in gravitational and space research.
• Almost 30 years involvement in gravitational and space research.

Anna-Lisa Paul

ASGSR President

• ASGSR Fellow
• AAAS Fellow
• ASGSR Founders Award
• ASGSR Orr Reynolds Distinguished Service Award

Paul’s research focuses on plant gene expression in response to environments relevant to space exploration. She uses orbital and suborbital platforms to study the molecular responses of plants to spaceflight and the transition to space, extreme terrestrial environments (Arctic, Antarctica) as planetary analogs, and worked with true Apollo lunar regolith. Paul has been active in the spaceflight research community for over 25 years with many roles, including as a member of the ISS Standing Review Board, on NASA’s GeneLab Science Council, and CSF’s Suborbital Applications Research Group advisory board. Paul serves on the National Academies Committee on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space (CBPSS), and was Co-Chair of the NASEM Human Exploration of Mars Panel on Biological and Physical Sciences and Human Factors.

• Paul is a recipient of the NASA Medal of Honor for Exceptional Scientific Achievement.

David Urban

ASGSR President

• ASGSR Fellow
• ASGSR’s first president from the physical sciences and NASA Glen Branch Chief
• David cites Inclusion of the Art contest in the ASGSR program and improvement of the drop tower competition during his presidency.
• The final experiment, Saffire-VI, launched to the International Space Station in August 2023 and concluded its mission on Jan. 9, 2024 when the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft it was flying on safely burned up during planned re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
• Dr. David Urban, principal investigator, and Dr. Gary Ruff, project manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, have led the Saffire project from Northeast Ohio since its initial spark in 2016. Throughout the experiment series, researchers gathered data NASA will use to enhance mission safety and inform future spacecraft and spacesuit designs.

April Ronca

ASGSR President

• ASGSR Halstead Early Career Investigator Award
• Dr. Ronca’s research focuses on reproduction, neurodevelopment and sex differences in Space and on Earth. 
• Her studies involve mammalian pregnancy, birth and the transition from prenatal to postnatal life emphasizing early sensory experience
• Her translational approach combines neurobiological, biochemical, epigenetic, neural imaging and behavioral analyses to elucidate effects of perinatal environment on later life phenotypes. 
• Ronca AE, Lowe MG. Rodents as a model for research in space. In Y Pathak, M Araújo dos Santos, L Zea (Eds) Handbook of space pharmaceuticals: Model organisms for pharmaceutical research in space, Springer Nature, Switzerland, 2022.

Rob Ferl

ASGSR President

• ASGSR Fellow
• ASGSR Founders Award
• Ferl’s research has significantly advanced our understanding of plant biology in space. He co-directs the UF Space Plants Lab with Anna-Lisa Paul. Together, they have launched 11 orbital experiments with plants on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station, as well as five suborbital spaceflight experiments. They have also conducted six Arctic research campaigns to Haughton Crater in the Canadian High Arctic and two Antarctic campaigns to the Neumayer III Research Station on the Ekström Ice Shelf.
• Ferl is the recipient of one of NASA’s most prestigious honors, the Exceptional Public Service Medal. 

Simon Gilroy

ASGSR President

• ASGSR Founders Award
• ASGSR Thora Halstead Early Career Investigator Award
• We are interested in how plants sense and respond to their environment and how these signals regulate plant development. 
• The research emphasis is to try and understand these processes at the cellular level. We combine advanced microscopy approaches such as confocal microscopy with biochemistry and molecular biology to address a wide range of biological questions.  
  • How do plants sense and respond to abiotic stresses?
  • How do roots and shoots sense and respond to gravity and touch stimuli?
  • How do plants regulate growth?
  • How do plants respond to the spaceflight environment?

Joe Tash

ASGSR President

• ASGSR Founders Award
• Area of research, funded by multiple NASA grants, is elucidating the impact of long term space flight on male and female reproductive health.   
• Multiple flight experiments including STS 81, STS-84, STS-131, STS-133, STS-135 and Space-X

Howard Levine

ASGSR President

• ASGSR Founders Award
• NASA Project Scientist, chairman of the KSC Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) for 14 years.
• PS/Science Team Member/Consultant in over 84 Spaceflight Experiments on Space Shuttles, ISS and MIR (plus Virgin Galactic & Blue Origin suborbital flights).
• Space-Related Publications (N=83) that include results from both plant (Arabidopsis, Wheat, Flax, Soybean, Corn, Daylily, Haplopappus, Ceratophyllum) and animal (Sea Urchins, Mice) research plus hardware and protocol development efforts.

Marshall Porterfield

ASGSB/ASGSR President

• Thora Halstead Early Career Award
• His research focuses on biosensors, bionanotechnology, and space biology. Over the last 25 years he has worked experimentally to study biological systems in the spaceflight environment for development of biomedical countermeasures and bioregenerative life support technologies. 

“I was the last president of ASGSB, and the first for ASGSR. We issued in the new society, at the beginning of the ISS utilization era which was critical for the community to have a voice and home to foster space and gravitational research. In this transition time I accepted the position of Div. Director for the new SLPS division (BPS/HRP) overseeing new Open Science initiatives, and the Genelab era of life sciences and genomics with the Twin Experiment and 1YM. Released and oversaw the Genelab Startegic plan, released in 2014, and including Open Science and AI/ML initiatives in Omics.”

Terri Lomax

ASGSB/R President

• Thora Halstead Early Career Award
• Senior Policy Analyst at NASA, Lomax contributed significantly as Director of Space Biology and Acting Deputy Associate Administrator for Research Executive Vice President, Discovery-Science-Technology at RTI International
• Scientific Consultant

Jeff Alberts

ASGSB/R President

• Dr. Alberts’ interests are in development as adaptation.  In particular, gravitational and space biology provides a framework for identifying functional significance of gravity to development.  
• His lab studies problems of organismal responses to altered gravitational forces (micro-g to hyper-g). 
• George M. Malacinski, Anton W. Neff, Jeffrey R. Alberts, Kenneth A. Souza, Developmental Biology in Outer Space: Spaceflight provides the opportunity for new studies, BioScience, Volume 39, Issue 5, May 1989, Pages 314–320, https://doi.org/10.2307/1311114

Danny Riley

ASGSB/R President

• ASGSR Founders Award
• PI on the Neurolab Spacelab Mission: Neuroscience Research in Space STS-90, Neurolab Spacelab Mission and NIH.R3/STS-72
• Riley, Danny A., James L. W. Bain, Joyce L. Thompson, Robert H. Fitts, Jeffrey J. Widrick, Scott W. Trappe, Todd A. Trappe, and David L. Costill. Thin filament diversity and physiological properties of fast and slow fiber types in astronaut leg muscles. J Appl Physiol 92: 817–825, 2002

Ken Souza

Ken Souza-2007, (deceased  2016) ASGSR Founders Award, long-time treasurer of the ASGSB. 

• Over his fifty years at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, Souza was an exemplary leader and visionary in the advancement of gravitational and space biology as a research scientist, Souza made it possible so that hundreds of space biology experiments would be performed on the space shuttle, shuttle-Mir, and the International Space Station.  When NASA biological research was curtailed due to cuts in funding in the mid-2000s, Souza worked tirelessly to maintain a small flight science program to continue space biology flights on the space shuttle. Administrator and mentor.  

Paul Todd

ASGSB/R President

• ASGSR Fellow
• ASGSR Founders Award
• Original member of the ASGSB and mentor to many.  
• Dr. Paul Todd is Chief Scientist Emeritus at Techshot (RED WIRE), Inc.

Paul says of his time as President, “We chose to become as ecumenical as possible during this time, reaching out to the astrobiology, space radiation, cellular biotechnology, and AIAA microgravity communities to explore closer relationships and possibly provide a society home. We also planned a joint meeting in Anger, France, with ELGRA, ISGP, and ESA, which occurred in the spring of 2008. Many ASGSB members had difficulty funding their participation.” 

Chris Brown

ASGSB/R President

• ASGSR Orr Reynolds Distinguished Service Award
• He was the director and principal investigator of the NASA/North Carolina Space Grant, as well as chair of the 50-state National Space Grant Alliance.  
• Brown was the founding manager and lead scientist for the Plant Space Biology Laboratory at the Kennedy Space Center. 
• He has publications on topics in gravitational and space biology, development of technology for spaceflight, and plant physiology.  

“The society provided much to me in my early and Mid-career and I wanted to give back and served as President.” 

John Kiss

ASGSB/R President

• ASGSR Fellow
• ASGSR Founders Award
• ASGSR Thora Halstead Early Career Investigator Award
• Long-time chair of the awards committee 
• He has worked with NASA since 1987 and served as principal investigator on eight spaceflight experiments on the Space Shuttle, the former Russian space station Mir, and on the International Space Station.  
• His research focuses on the sensory physiology of plants in space.  
• He received the NASA Outstanding Public Leadership Medal in 2014. 
• In 2021, Asteroid Kiss 8267 was named in his honor, a recognition that coincided with his receipt of the 2021 COSPAR International Cooperation Medal.

Charles A. Fuller

ASGSB/R President

• ASGSR Founders Award
• Original member of the ASGSB
• PI on NIH R2
• Characterizing the Effects of Chronic 2G Centrifugation on the Rat Skeletal System

Marian Lewis

ASGSB/R President

• Worked on T cell responses during space flight and collaborated with Millie Hughes-Fulford
• Authored , Southern Sanctuary A Naturalist’s Walk through the Seasons
• Characterizing the Effects of Chronic 2G Centrifugation on the Rat Skeletal System
• Advances in space biology and medicine, Volume 8, 2002, Pages 77-128. The cytoskeleton, apoptosis, and gene expression in T lymphocytes and other mammalian cells exposed to altered gravity
• Southern Sanctuary…SBN 10: 0817357831 ISBN 13: 9780817357832 , Publisher: University Alabama Press, 2015 

Stephen B. Doty

ASGSB/R President

• Skeletal Development in Long Duration Spaceflight
• Doty SB, Vico L, Wronski T, Morey-Holton E. Use of animal models to study skeletal effects of space flight. Adv Space Biol Med. 2005;10:209-24. doi: 10.1016/s1569-2574(05)10008-2. PMID: 16101109.

Jay Buckey

ASGSB/R President

• ASGSR Thora Halstead Early Investigator Award
• First international meeting in Montreal during his term.  Historic first international meeting with CSA and ELGRA
• Space Physiology from Oxford University Press
  https://global.oup.com/academic/product/space-physiology-9780195137255?cc=us&lang=en&
• The Neurolab Spacelab Mission: Neuroscience Research in Space Results from the STS-90, Neurolab Spacelab Mission https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24323554_The_Neurolab_Spacelab_Mission_Neuroscience_Research_in_Space_Results_from_the_STS-90_Neurolab_Spacelab_Mission

Norman G. Lewis

ASGSB/R President

• Studies the effects of stress (e.g., gravitational field strength) on plant growth and development at the enzymatic and ultrastructural level.  Was the principal investigator for the Arabidopsis Gravitational Response Omics (Arabidopsis-GRO) consortium study on Veggie.
• With Laurence Davin funds the ASGSR Inspiration Scholarships 

Gerald Sonnenfeld

ASGSB/R President

• ASGSR Founders Award
• Sonnenfeld G, Shearer WT. Immune function during space flight. Nutrition. 2002 Oct;18(10):899-903. doi: 10.1016/s0899-9007(02)00903-6. PMID: 12361785.

“Spent most of my career working on space flight effects on immune responses and how that could compromise our ability to explore…”

Mary Musgrave

Mary Musgrave-1997 (deceased 2011)

• ASGSR Orr Reynolds Distinguished Service Award
• ASGSR Thora Halstead Early Career Investigator Award
• Studied the effects of microgravity on developmental and physiological processes in plants. She was the first person to grow plants from seed-to-seed in space.
• Mary served on the governing board of the ASGSB (1994–1999) and editor of the Gravitational and Space Biology Bulletin from 1997 to 2011. 

Jackie Duke

Jackie Duke-1996 (deceased 2018)

• ASGSR Orr Reynolds Distinguished Service Award
• Achievements include her involvement with NASA
• NASA’s Group Achievement Award
• NASA’s Space Biology Program member of Post-Flight Bone Dissection Team for NASA
• Outstanding Woman Scientist by Gulf Coast/Houston Chapter Association of Women in Science and the University of Texas Dean’s Teaching Excellus Award. 
• Professor Emeritus from the Department of Orthodontics at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Dentistry 

Stan Roux

ASGSB/R President

• ASGSR Fellow
• ASGSR Founders Award
• Studies how the environmental stimuli of light and gravity alter patterns of growth and development in plants using molecular approaches to characterize proteins that are critically involved in the coupling of light and gravity stimuli to growth changes in plants.
• Salmi ML, Roux SJ. Gene expression changes induced by space flight in single-cells of the fern Ceratopteris richardii. Planta. 229 (1) :151-9.

“I really enjoyed the collegiality and esprit de corps of the members of ASGSB(R). and the shared excitement of doing novel space-based and ground-based research in gravitational biology.”

Emily Holton

ASGSB/R President

• ASGSR Fellow
• ASGSR Founders Award
• Pioneer in bone turnover and spaceflight member of NASA Ames Hall of Fame
• Spaceflight and Bone Turnover: Correlation with a New Rat Model of Weightlessness, BioScience, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Mar., 1979), pp. 168-172.

“I was being mentored by Thora Halstead, an amazing lady, who started the Society at the meeting of her grantees in Harpers, Ferry, WV. When the Society began, it needed strong leaders who would work to grow the Society and expand the breadth of knowledge in the fledgling space program.”

Cary Mitchell

ASGSB/R President

• ASGSR Founders Award
• Orr Reynolds Distinguised Service Award
• Director, NSCORT in Bioregenerative live support (1990-1996)
• Dr. Cary Mitchell’s research has left an indelible mark, particularly in the areas of controlled environment agriculture, plant growth regulation, and advanced horticultural technologies. His work continues to inspire future generations of scientists and researchers.
• Bioregenerative life-support systems, CA Mitchell – The American journal of clinical nutrition, 1994

Bob Phillips

Bob Phillips-1992, (deceased 2013) ASGSB/R President

• Orr Reynolds Distinguised Service Award
• Bob was one of the original crew members selected for the Spacelab mission which eventually became SLS-1. He was disqualified a few years after selection for medical reasons but continued to work on the mission. 
• If you look at the STS-40 mission patch you will see that the stars representing the crew members forms a “P” in his honor.

Marc Tischler

ASGSB/R President

• Orr Reynolds Distinguised Service Award
• Overall changes in body weight, and changes in mass, protein, tyrosine, and glycogen in the hindlimb muscles were compared in SL-3 and ground control rats. 
• Sliced muscles were assayed enzymatically. Homogenates were then separated by centrifuge; protein was assayed spectrophotometrically; and the supernatant was analyzed fluorometrically for tyrosine and other amino acids.
• https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/life_into_space_vol1.pdf

Joe Musacchia

Joe Musacchia-1990 (deceased 2014)

• ASGSR Founders Award
• Worked on the comparative morphometry of fibers and capillaries in soleus following weightlessness (SL-3) and suspension.

Carl Leopold

ASGSB/R Carl Leopold-1989 (deceased 2009)

• A pioneer in the study of the plant hormone auxin  and later for work on desiccation tolerance in seeds and gravitropism. 

Abe Krikorian

ASGSB/R President

• Together with Thora Halstead was a prime mover in 1984 in the establishment of the ASGSB
• He participated with F.C. Steward in the 1975 joint Soviet-USA Biological Satellite Cosmos 782 mission by flying totipotent cells of carrot capable of developing into full grown somatic embryos

Thora Halstead

Thora Halstead-1987 (deceased 2016)

• ASGSR Founders Awardee
• The ASGSR Early Investigator is in honor of Thora Halstead
• She retired from NASA Life Sciences in 1994
• She was the Manager of the Space Biology Program; Life and Biomedical Sciences and Applications Division.
• She was the Program Scientist for the Space Shuttle launched in September 1992. 
• Her numerous experiments and published research articles (more than 40) focused on the study of how the cells of living organisms respond to a low-gravity environment. 
• She was a founding member of the ASGSB

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Orr Reynolds

Orr Reynolds-1986, (deceased 1991)

• ASGSR Founders Awardee
• The Society’s Distinguished Service Award is named for Orr Reynolds

Allan Brown

Allan Brown-Founding President, 1984-1985, (deceased 2004)

• ASGSR Founders Awardee
• Photosynthesis Research (2006) 87: 159–163, DOI: 10.1007/s11120-005-9017-9