Nathan Keller is an explorer and adventurer. A Ph.D. candidate 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, Nathan‘s doctoral work focuses on the implementation of technology countermeasures to the negative effects of prolonged human spaceflight.
Logan Kluis
Logan Kluis is a PhD candidate 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. Logan is also a Matthew Isakowitz Fellow.
Poonam Josan
Poonam Josan is a PhD student in Texas A&M’s Aerospace Engineering department. Her interests focus on space human factors, in particular human-system integration (HSI) and human performance optimization in altered gravity environments. She is also interested in understanding human and robotic interactions and using Earth-based analogs to develop related operational frameworks for integrated human-robotic planetary exploration.
Poonam received a B.Tech. in Aerospace Engineering from SRM University, India where her research focus was on improving thrust efficiency of micro-propulsion devices using aerospike nozzles. To pursue her interest in human spaceflight, she moved to the US and received a MS in Space Studies from University of North Dakota (UND). While there, she was heavily involved in student rocketry, high altitude ballooning, planetary space suits and human habitation related analog research (both as a subject and mission controller). She also served as President of UND’s Dakota Space Society which engaged the general public in STEAM related activities. Upon graduation, Poonam worked for start-ups in the Southern California aerospace industry before eventually deciding to return to academia. Her current research work at BHP utilizes NASA’s HSI standards for the experimental design and Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) testing of a Virtual Assistant (VA) tool developed for future long duration exploration missions.
Apart from space exploration, Poonam enjoys traveling, exploring national parks, hiking, and learning about modern history.
Renée Abbott (Woodruff)
Renée Abbott is a Ph.D. student in Texas A&M’s Aerospace Engineering department. She is a 2021 NASA NSTGRO recipient, and her research will include developing and assessing the effectiveness of virtual reality technologies as tools to enhance the behavioral health of astronauts on long duration missions. Her additional work is focused on assessing physiological function in altered gravity environments via parabolic flight and short-radius centrifuge analogs. In 2020, Renée received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering with minors in mathematics and astrophysics from Texas A&M. She has also been a member of the A&M Gymnastics club since 2017 and served as the Women’s Team Captain from 2020-2021.