Focused Research Program Symposium: "Space Travel with Earth Wisdom - Payload Enhancement Talks"
Space Travel with Earth Wisdom FRP Symposium
Date: May 24th, 2024
“Payload enhancement” Talks
Moderator: Ilija Dukovski, Research Associate Professor, Bioinformatics, CDS
Overview: ecology, botany, biology, and space science experts share their research, experience, and thoughts on space exploration and sustainability.
Speakers:
Dr. Christopher S. Moore, Smithsonian Astrophysicist, Astronomy Department Research Associate
Biography: Dr. Christopher Moore is an astrophysicist who is intrigued with how stars work. Dr. Moore focuses on constraining solar atmospheric heating mechanisms during all phases of the Solar cycle. Dr. Moore also develops new technology and instrumentation to acquire better data on astrophysical phenomena.
Research Description: The Sun is the most dominant force in the solar system. Variations in the Sun’s magnetic structure lead to dramatic changes in energetics, radiative output, and particle flows which drive heliospheric conditions.
Dr. Judith Sumner, Botanist
Biography: Judith Sumner is a botanist with lifelong interest in ethnobotany and plant uses. She is the author of books on medicinal plants, North American ethnobotany, and botanical aspects of the Civil War and World War II.
Research Description: Ethnobotany extends to colonizing space! On the practical side, I will discuss crop plants with potentially diverse uses. I will also investigate the biophilia hypothesis and its implications for space colonies--in short, can people survive long term without botanical nature as part of their daily environment?
Ann Raiho, Head of Data Science, Funga
Biography: Dr. Ann Raiho is a quantitative ecologist with a background in using all kinds ecological data to answer complex questions and make decisions. Ann is working on scaling Funga's analysis pipelines and keeping Funga FUN.
Research Description: Fungi are essential to life on Earth, and fungus rarely work alone. To successfully use these complex communities in space, we need to do everything we can to understand them on Earth first.