People

Faculty

Ana Diaz Artiles, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering

Dr. Ana Diaz Artiles is an assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. Her interests focus on the engineering, biomedical, and human factors aspects of space exploration, including artificial gravity, spacesuits, space physiology, and human health countermeasures. At Texas A&M University she directs the “Bioastronautics and Human Performance” research lab. She received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2015, where she studied artificial gravity combined with exercise as a countermeasure for spaceflight-related physiological deconditioning. Prior to MIT, Ana worked for five years in Kourou (French Guiana) as a member of the Ariane 5 launch team. Dr. Diaz-Artiles has a background in aeronautical engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain), and SUPAERO in Toulouse (France). She is a 2011 Fulbright fellow and a 2014 Amelia Earhart Fellowship recipient.

Doctoral Students

Rich Whittle

Rich Whittle is a Ph.D. Student in Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. His research interests focus on understanding and characterizing physiological changes in altered gravity environments, in particular long duration changes on the cardiovascular system during spaceflight.

Rich received an M.Sc. in Astronautics and Space Engineering from Cranfield University, where he was the Vice-Chancellor’s Prize Winner, an M.A. and M.Eng. from the University of Cambridge, and is completing a distance learning M.B.A. from the University of Northampton (all UK). He has worked as a British Army Officer since 2009, and is still a serving Captain in the British Army Reserves.

During his military career, Rich deployed on combat operations with The Parachute Regiment in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, and researched the causes of lower limb overuse injury in military recruits. He also served as an Operations Officer within UK Defense Intelligence (GEOINT), helped write the Royal Air Force Centre of Aviation Medicine Human Spaceflight Strategy, and was an industry project management consultant. He is a graduate of both the International Space University Space Studies Program and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he was HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Medal Winner.

[Read more…] about Rich Whittle

Nathan Keller

Nathan Keller is an explorer and adventurer. A Ph.D. student on loan from Texas A&M’s Kinesiology department, Nathan went straight into the workforce after finishing his Bachelor’s degree at Texas Christian University. For years he ran gyms, started businesses, and eventually found his passion for teaching. As a high school science teacher, Mr. Keller taught Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy, and Physics for five years and considers his time in that role to be his highest honor thus far.

The meandering adventure of life has finally led him to pursue his original calling to further the frontiers of science and human exploration. Parlaying his life’s experience and education into his love for all things space, his doctoral work focuses on the role of artificial gravity as a countermeasure to muscle atrophy during human spaceflight.

Logan Kluis

Logan Kluis is a PhD student in Bioastronautics in Texas A&M’s Aerospace Engineering department. His research interests focus on human spaceflight and in particular, human-spacesuit interaction and performance.

Logan received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and minor in Biomedical Engineering at Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT). While there, he was a recipient of the Aerospace Engineering Department’s James Means Excellence in Space Systems Engineering Award. Outside of the classroom, he was a member of the MIT football team and twice received Academic All-Conference Honors. He was also a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity where he served as President and received the MIT Fraternity Senior Legacy Award.

Collette Gillaspie

Collette Gillaspie is a Ph.D. student in Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University with a demonstrated passion for human space exploration. During the summer of 2020, Collette interned at Collins Aerospace, where she supported the cooling and ventilation loop design efforts for the Artemis spacesuit and the development of a lunar surface mission Concept of Operations. At her alma mater, the University of Notre Dame (B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, 2020), Collette was a four-time participant in the NASA Student Launch competition through the Notre Dame Rocketry Team (NDRT). During her junior year, Collette led the experimental payload team in the design and construction of an unmanned aerial vehicle with simulated navigational beacon delivery. Collette was the Captain of NDRT when she was a senior. Collette was also a fluid-structure interactions research assistant, an electrical equipment intern on Boeing’s H-47 Chinook, and a three-year Boeing Scholar. The focus of Collette’s research at Texas A&M will be at the interface between aerospace material science (under Dr. Darren Hartl) and bioastronautics (under Dr. Ana Diaz Artiles). She will research the thermal control applications of a lightweight, advanced passively morphing radiator for implementation on manned missions to deep space.

Poonam Josan

Poonam Josan is a PhD student in Bioastronautics in Texas A&M’s Aerospace Engineering department. Her research interests focus on human spaceflight and in particular, optimizing human performance in altered gravity environments. She is also interested in the design of habitat systems, planetary spacesuits and assistive wearable technologies for EVAs.

Poonam received a B.S in Aerospace Engineering from SRM University, India where her research was focused on designing and testing small aerospike rocket nozzles to enhance thrust efficiency of micro-propulsion devices. She graduated with an M.S. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, where she studied the design of haptics infused planetary spacesuits as a countermeasure to altered vestibular functions in reduced gravity planetary operations.

Prior to TAMU, Ponam worked for start-ups in Southern California aerospace industry. She has also participated in analogue space missions in North Dakota and Poland both as a mission controller and as a crew member. During these 2-week isolation missions, she studied the effects of the absence of EVAs and sunlight on the crew’s mood and circadian rhythms.

Apart from space exploration, Poonam enjoys travelling, national parks, wilderness hiking, and learning about modern history.

Undergraduate Students

Chase Audirsch

Chase Audirsch is a junior undergraduate in the honors Aerospace Engineering program at Texas A&M University. He is from Denton, Texas and works in the lab researching potential advancements in EVA space suits. Chase is currently working to quantify and understand the trade space associated with the integration of soft robotics into EVA suits. He is also a big fan of Aggie football and enjoys playing guitar.

Eric Hall

Eric is a freshman pre-med general engineering major from Nashville, Tennessee planning to major in Biomedical Engineering. He is the current Health and Safety in Space Lead for Spring 2020 in Aggie Astronaut Corps. In the future, Eric hopes to attend medical school and work in the field of aerospace medicine.

Eric is an NHA certified Electrocardiogram Technician with over 100 hours of medical shadowing experience. His experience in the medical field has included observing everything from ICU day to day operation, cardiac catheterization, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatographies, total knee replacements, and outpatient physical therapy.

Leah Davis

Leah Davis is a sophomore undergraduate student majoring in Aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University. She is from Dallas, Texas and is interested in researching the impacts of variations of gravity on the human body.

She and her team will be experimenting with the effects of changing gravitational force on the cardiovascular and metabolic systems of humans. This research will continue the work on understanding how astronauts modified in their flights and orbits to find preventative measures.

Outside of her studies, Leah is a resident advisor at the on campus apartments and enjoys relaxing with friends and family when she can.

Lindsay Stapleton

Lindsay is a sophomore pre-med honors Aerospace Engineering major. This year, she is serving as the director of Aggie Astronaut Corps, a new program providing financially accessible opportunities in spaceflight science and development to Texas A&M students. Lindsay is heavily involved with Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, previously as Head of Public Relations and Marketing in 2018-2019 and now in an advisory role. This past spring, she worked as a technical artist in former NASA astronaut Dr. Gregory Chamitoff’s SpaceCRAFT VR lab, in which she 3D modeled and textured forms for use in SpaceCRAFT’s open-access Virtual Reality Sandbox environment.

Lindsay is a Craig and Galen Brown Scholar, a President’s Endowed Scholar, a National Merit Scholar, and a National AP Scholar. She’s also a student pilot with over 40 hours of single-engine flight training and is working towards her Private Pilot Certificate. In the future, Lindsay aspires to graduate from medical school and become an aerospace physician working to facilitate long-duration space missions and the human exploration of Mars.