Brown Bag Seminar Features Tiffany Swarmer on October 9th
The fall semester Brown Bag Seminar Series features graduate students providing presentations on their current research and recent internships. The series continues on Wednesday, October 9th, featuring grad student Tiffany Swarmer presenting “Microbial Hazards for Long-Duration Space Missions”
About the topic:
Microorganisms are found in a wide range of harsh Earth environments and it is not surprising that these tiny organisms have found a way to survive and thrive in microgravity. Microbes, like human cells, undergo cellular changes while in microgravity and these cellular changes have the potential to be detrimental to both human health and spacecraft systems.
For this reason the International Space Station (ISS) is closely monitored for increases in microbial numbers, harmful microorganisms, and the potential microbial hazards. Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) Microbiology Department is responsible for microbial monitoring of the ISS and mitigating any microbial issues that arise onboard. Although this activity is the major function of the JSC Microbiology Department this is not the only task handled by the JSC microbiologists. Additional research into microbial behavior in microgravity is performed with some of the research focusing on pathogenicity, genetic composition, and onboard identification of the ISS’s microbial community. These insights into microbial function in microgravity are being applied to create countermeasures and controls for future long duration human spaceflight.
In this seminar presenter will focus on describing the current operational procedures for monitoring microbes on the ISS, some of the current studies being carried out at JSC, and the processes for mitigating microbes during human spaceflight. Microbial control within spacecraft will be a concern for future human space explorers regardless of the destination and has the potential to harm the crew or end the mission prematurely. At JSC the Microbiology Department works hard to understand microbial type, behavior, and genetic composition onboard of the ISS to maintain a safe environment and help create future space based technologies that will further our human spaceflight capabilities.
This series of presentations will be held in the Space Studies Library at noon. Lunch will be served.
Those unable to attend in person may view the live webcast via Connect-Pro: http://connect.aero.und.edu/r891nws19xs/ Sign in as a guest or use your Connect-Pro log-in. This series is only available live, and will not be recorded for later viewing. Online students are encouraged to attend if possible. The presentation begins at approximately 12:15 p.m.
For information on the Brown Bag Seminar Series, please contact Space Studies faculty member Dr. Vadim Rygalov.