Plantae Presents – Role of Plant Scientists in Space Agriculture: Gardening the Galaxy

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Plantae Presents – Role of Plant Scientists in Space Agriculture: Gardening the Galaxy

Featuring Simon Gilroy, Veronica De Micco, and Jenny Mortimer

 

When: Tuesday, June 17, 2025, at
2:00 PM PDT | 5:00 PM EDT | 10:00 PM BST | 5:00 AM Beijing

Register Here

About this Webinar

This webinar explores the pivotal role plant scientists play in developing sustainable space agriculture systems. From understanding plant growth in microgravity to engineering crops that can thrive in controlled, closed-loop environments, plant science is at the frontier of ensuring food security for astronauts and possibly future space settlers. Join us as we delve into cutting-edge research, challenges of extraterrestrial farming, and the innovative technologies that are reshaping how and where we grow our food.

Hosted by the 2025 Plantae Fellows.

 

SPEAKERS

Simon Gilroy

Simon Gilroy is a professor in the Department of Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research team focuses on dissecting the molecular underpinnings of plant stress-response signaling systems with an emphasis on the effects of spaceflight. He has completed 5 spaceflight experiments to the International Space Station and currently has active research programs on plant-microbe interactions during spaceflight, the effects of space radiation on plant-microbe interactions and on how lunar regolith might be bio-remediated to support plant growth for long-term habitation on the Moon.

 

 

 

 

Veronica De Micco

Veronica De Micco is Full Professor of Environmental and Applied Botany at the University of Naples Federico II (UNINA), previously Associate professor (2015-2021) and Assistant Professor (2007-2015), where she is Responsible of the Plant & Wood Traits Lab at the Department of Agricultural Sciences.

She graduated at UNINA with laudem in Agricultural Sciences (2000) and achieved the title of PhD in Woody Coltures (2004) with a period of research training at the Washington State Univ. (USA). Until 2015, main research activity conducted at UNINA, University of Rome La Sapienza, University of Salerno and CNRS – CERMAV (Grenoble, FR).

Listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University, her studies regard the links between plant structure/function and environmental/crop factors with particular attention to the analysis of hydraulic and photosynthetic efficiency. Such studies are applied to the productivity and sustainability of natural and agricultural ecosystems on Earth in a context of climate change and in artificial ecosystems in extreme environments. In Space-related research, she combines studies of fundamental plant biology with applied studies targeted to the definition of requirements for crop production, with a focus on the plants’ responses to ionizing radiation.

She has participated to more than 30 and coordinated 14 national/international projects. Currently, she is Coordinator of PRIMO project “Priming Radiation-Induced plants’ adaptation to Moon: make an enemy your friend” selected by ESA within the AO-2022-Reserve Pool of Science Activities for the Moon.

Main appointments in space-related field: Vice-Chair of the Life Sciences Working Group (LSWG) of ESA (2020-2024); Member of the Facility Science Teams (FST) of ESA for ISS Biolab; Member of the Lunar BioMission Topical Team of European Space Agency (ESA); Coordinator of the International Working Group for the realization of the ESA Roadmap #9 (Biology in Space and Analogue Environments, Plant Biology) and ROADMAP #11 (Bio-regenerative life support systems in space: space biotechnology & space agriculture within program) within ESA SciSpacE white papers.

She has been teaching at UNINA since 2007, being also the tutor of 6 PhD students and more than 50 Laurea/Master students.

 

Jenny Mortimer

Jenny Mortimer is Professor of Plant Synthetic Biology in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide (UoA), Australia, where she is also Deputy Director (Interim) of the Waite Research Institute. She is Chief Investigator (CI) and UoA node leader of the ARC Centre of Excellence Plants for Space (P4S). She is also an Affiliate Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, and a Director of Plant Systems Biology at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, USA. After completing her PhD at Cambridge University, UK, she began exploring how engineering the plant cell wall could deliver sustainable and economically viable biofuels: first as a postdoc in Cambridge, then as a research fellow at RIKEN Japan, before joining Berkeley Lab in 2014, and Adelaide in 2021. Her team’s research focuses on understanding and manipulating plant cell metabolism, with a focus on complex glycosylation. The goal is to develop knowledge and crops which contribute to a sustainable and renewable bioeconomy.

At Adelaide, her group is using synthetic biology to develop new crops for food and materials production in controlled growth environments – including for Space settlement (P4S), applying new agricultural biotechnologies to develop resilient field crops as a CI in the ARC Training Centre for Future Crops Development, and developing Australian feedstocks for sustainable jet fuel as a CI in the ARC Research Hub for Engineering Plants to Replace Fossil Carbon. She is also part of the team that has established the new BioPlatforms Australia funded Plant Synthetic Biology Foundry, launching later this year. She collaborates extensively internationally, and projects include a UK Space Agency funded project to develop a plant growth facility for Axiom Station, and a NASA funded project (LEAF) to develop a payload for Artemis III, the mission that will return humans to the surface of the moon. She was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Scientist (2016/17), where she contributed to the WEF Code of Ethics for Researchers (widgets.weforum.org/coe). She was awarded the 2024 Bruce Stone Award for Excellence in Polysaccharide Biochemistry and the 2024 Australian Society of Plant Sciences Jan Anderson award. She is a handling editor for the society journals Plant Cell Physiology and Plant Journal. You can find out more information on the lab here: mortimerlab.org/.

 

MODERATORS

Marvin Jin

Marvin is a PhD student in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University. Curious about plant developmental biology, his research focuses on identifying putative gene targets regulating root angle growth in hopes to engineer better crop root systems for future climates and environments. X: @MarvinJYS.

 

 

 

 

 

Ved Prakash

Ved is originally from Varanasi, India. He holds a Master’s degree in Applied Microbiology from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and earned his Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India, under the supervision of Prof. Supriya Chakraborty. Ved’s research interests center around plant-virus-vector interactions, with a strong focus on understanding the molecular and ecological dynamics of virus transmission.

Currently, he is a postdoctoral fellow at The Ohio State University, working with Dr. Jennifer Wilson and Dr. Erik Ohlson. His research explores the seed transmission of High Plains wheat mosaic virus (HPWMoV) and Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV), focusing on their localization within seeds and the impact of co-infection on maize development.

Beyond the lab, Ved enjoys birdwatching and astrophotography, combining his passion for nature and science through the lens. X:@vedjiwan

 

 

Abira Sahu

Abira is a Scientist in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She was born and raised in Kolkata, India. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata. She moved to the U.S. in 2015 to pursue graduate studies and received a Ph.D. in Biology from Texas A&M University in 2020. During her Ph.D., she studied spatiotemporal regulation of phosphate homeostasis in root developmental zones. Her current research focuses on the regulation of volatile organic compounds emission from plants and their roles in modulating the atmospheric chemistry as well as plant physiology and stress tolerance. Outside lab, she enjoys painting and making digital art. X: @AbiraSahu.

 

 

 

Maya Sealander

Maya is a Master’s student in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri and received her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Puget Sound in 2020. Her research focuses on ROS production in response to abiotic stress in Arabidopsis.