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Houston-based space health research institution names postdoctoral fellows

Five scientists have been selected for a prestigious fellowship focused on health innovation for space dwellers. Pexels

An organization that is supporting health care innovation in space has awarded five postdoctoral fellowships to scientists working in space-translatable life sciences.

The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine announced the five fellows this week for the two-year program. The five scientists will join 10 others who are currently a part of the TRISH Academy of Bioastronautics. These fellows are tasked with a project that focuses on health challenges astronauts on deep space exploration missions.

"To reach Mars and the next stage of human exploration, the space industry will need a robust pipeline of highly trained scientists focused on human health," says Dr. Dorit Donoviel, director of TRISH, in a news release. "TRISH has selected five postdoctoral who are answering that call. We are proud to welcome these outstanding scientists to our Academy of Bioastronautics."

The five news postdoctoral fellows are:

  • Kristyn Hoffman of NASA Johnson Space Center, whose study is "Development of Machine Learning-Derived Microbiological and Immune Signatures: Applications in Adaptive Risk Assessment of Infectious Disease During Spaceflight" with mentor C. Mark Ott
  • Evan Buettmann of Virginia Commonwealth University, whose study is "Investigating the Effects of Simulated Microgravity Duration and Connexin 43 Deficiency on Bone Fracture Healing" with mentor Henry Donahue.
  • Matthew Gaidica of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, whose study is "Manipulating Sleep Architecture as an Operational Countermeasure" with mentor Ben Dantzer.
  • Maria Sekyi of the University of California, San Francisco, whose study is "Microgravity and Partial Gravity Effects on Hepatic Organoid Steatosis and Function" with mentor Dr. Tammy Chang.
  • M. Arifur Rahman of the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, whose study is "Medical Oxygen Delivery System in Exploration Atmosphere Minimizing the Risk of Fire" with mentor Aaron Ohta.

TRISH is tasked by NASA to create a new type of health care in space where doctors and fully equipped hospitals are not readily available. The organization is working to provide solutions for range from protecting from radiation exposure on the moon and mars to personal health care — astronauts have to be a doctor to themselves when they are on the space station.

"That's a totally new model for health care, so we have to solve all those problems and invest in them," Donoviel tells InnovationMap on a recent episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast.

Dorit Donoviel is the director of NASA-backed Translational Research Institute for Space Health is innovating the future of life in space. Libby Neder Photography


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The biggest obstacle is a lack of open-mindedness and an unwillingness of people across the industry and across generations to work together. Photo via Getty Images

What’s the biggest obstacle between us and net-zero? Is it policy? Technology? Financing? All of these are important, yes, but none of them is what is really holding us back from our energy transition goals.

The biggest obstacle is a lack of open-mindedness and an unwillingness of people across the industry and across generations to work together.

In October of 2022, I was invited to speak at Energy Dialogues’s North American Gas Forum, a conference that brings together executives from across the energy industry. Over the two days of the conference, I was amazed by the forward-thinking conversations we were having on decarbonization, the future of clean energy, emissions reduction, and much more. I returned back to campus at Duke University, energized by these conversations and excited to share them. But rather than seeing the same sense of excitement, I was met with doubt, disbelief, even scorn.

There’s a fundamental distrust between generations in this industry, and it goes both ways. Experienced energy professionals often see the younger generation as irrational idealists who are too politicized to be pragmatic, while the younger generation often paints the older generation as uncaring climate denialists who want nothing to do with clean energy. Neither is true.

Over the past two years since founding Energy Terminal, I’ve met hundreds (maybe thousands) of people all across the energy industry, from CEOs of major energy companies to students just getting started on their career journey. Despite being so different on the surface, their goals are strikingly similar. Almost all can agree on three things: we want to reduce emissions, we want to expand energy access, and we want to do so while encouraging economic prosperity. The perceived barrier between generations in the energy industry is exponentially larger than the actual barrier.

For experienced professionals — take a chance to engage in conversations with young energy leaders. Understand their priorities, listen to their concerns, and find the middle ground. We are a generation passionate about impact and growth, and enabled with the right resources, we can do incredible things. The changing energy world presents unbelievable opportunities for both progress and profit, but without the next generation on board, it will never be sustainable.

For the young energy leaders of the future–listen to the experiences of the leaders that have come before us. Understand the balance between energy that is clean with energy that is secure, reliable, and affordable. We have brilliant ideas and an insatiable appetite for progress, but we won’t do it alone. Every person and every company has a valuable role to play in the energy transition, so consider how we can amplify our strengths rather than attack each other’s weaknesses.

If my co-founder, a climate activist from New York, and myself, the son of an oil and gas family from south Texas, can do it, so can you. This is a call to find the middle ground, to open up your mind to new possibilities, and to make real progress by working with each other rather than against each other.

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Michael Wood III is co-founder of Energy Terminal, a platform that aims to build the next generation of energy leaders and to bridge the gap between youth and the energy industry.

This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

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