By SANDI MILLER, MIT DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS DECEMBER 9, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Marcos Berr\u00edos, Christina Birch, and Christopher Williams were among the 10 new NASA astronaut candidates selected out of a pool of more than 12,000 applicants. They will report to astronaut training in January. Credit: Photos courtesy of NASA<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marcos Berr\u00edos \u201906, Christina Birch PhD \u201915, and Christopher Williams PhD \u201912 make up a third of the 2021\u00a0NASA\u00a0astronaut candidate class.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday, MIT confirmed once again its status as a popular launchpad for future astronauts. NASA announced<\/a> that three MIT alumni are among its 10-member astronaut candidate class of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marcos Berr\u00edos \u201906, who graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering; Christina Birch PhD \u201915, who earned a doctorate from the Department of Biological Engineering, and Christopher Williams PhD \u201912, who earned a doctorate from the Department of Physics, were introduced as members of the newest astronaut class, NASA\u2019s first in four years, during an event near NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are among 10 new U.S. astronaut candidates chosen from over 12,000 applicants. The three aim to boost the total number of MIT astronaut alumni<\/a> to 44, of the 360 NASA selected by NASA to serve as astronauts since the original Mercury Seven in 1959.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The astronaut candidates will report for duty at JSC in January to begin two years of training. Astronaut candidate training falls into five major categories: operating and maintaining the International Space Station\u2019s<\/a> complex systems, training for spacewalks, developing complex robotics skills, safely operating a T-38 training jet, and Russian language skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon completion, missions may involve performing research aboard the International Space Station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, and deep space missions to destinations including the moon on NASA\u2019s Orion spacecraft<\/a> and Space Launch System<\/a> rocket.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n NASA Astronaut Candidate Marcos Berr\u00edos. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n\n\n\n A native of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Berr\u00edos, 37, is a U.S. Air Force major and test pilot who received his bachelor\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering from MIT and a master\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering as well as a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A distinguished pilot, Berr\u00edos has accumulated more than 110 combat missions and 1,300 hours of flight time in more than 21 different aircraft. \u201cAs a test pilot I really I truly believe in the human space exploration mission, and I would love to contribute to the development of the new vehicles that are going to take us to the moon,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time of his selection as a NASA astronaut candidate, Berr\u00edos served as the commander of Detachment 1, 413th<\/sup> Flight Test Squadron and deputy director of the CSAR Combined Task Force. While a reservist in the Air National Guard, Berr\u00edos worked as an aerospace engineer for the U.S. Army Aviation Development Directorate at Moffett Federal Airfield in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be an astronaut,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I was five or six, I wanted to travel to nebulas and other galaxies. The book \u2018Ender\u2019s Game\u2019 was probably the book that certainly helped continue that inspiration for exploring space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A voracious reader of astronaut autobiographies, he decided to emulate them by getting his PhD and joining the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Berr\u00edos says that MIT first began preparing him for the rigors of being an astronaut during the \u201chours and hours and hours of trying to finish all the problem sets that we had to do it in a week. I think that discipline alone absolutely prepared me to handle or tackle anything else that that came my way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI went into mechanical engineering because I wanted to build things,\u201d he adds. \u201cI wanted to use my hands. I took 2.007, a class I would Google when I was in high school \u2014 that class alone motivated me to want to go to MIT. I think those hands-on skills are extremely important for astronauts. On a space station, we do need to, you know, fix the toilet, we do need to maintain that vehicle in space, and so I think the hands-on skills, the problem-solving skills that I got from studying at MIT will be extremely helpful.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n NASA Astronaut Candidate Christina Birch. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n\n\n\n Birch, 35, grew up in Gilbert, Arizona, and graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor\u2019s degree in mathematics and a bachelor\u2019s degree in biochemistry and molecular biophysics. At MIT she worked in the Niles lab in the Department of Biological Engineering, gained skills in engineering and communication, and was active on the MIT cycling team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After earning a doctorate in biological engineering from MIT, she taught bioengineering at the University of California at Riverside, and scientific writing and communication at Caltech. But she was pulled back to cycling competitions, and left academia to become a decorated track cyclist on the U.S. National Team, and at one point was bound for the Olympics. While she was on hand to support her Olympics teammates in Japan this summer, she also lined up her second interview with NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a professional athlete track cyclist, her training regimen will come in handy. \u201cMy training is going to be very varied and require a lot of different physical skills, so some of the things I\u2019ve already started to do is finally work on my upper body, which we neglect as cyclists. So, I\u2019m trying to work on shoulder strength and flexibility grip strength preparing for a spacewalk training in the neutral buoyancy lab.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBeing an astronaut was always a dream sort of in the background, but I really don\u2019t think it was until I was working in the lab doing experiments in biology, bioengineering, and chemistry. I saw what was going on in the in the Space Station and seeing similar experiments being done up there, and I said, \u2018Hey you know, this is a skill set that I have. Maybe I have other things I can contribute.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s still sort of sinking in, the fact that I\u2019m sitting here in the flight suit,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m really excited to be training in the T-38 jets, because half my class are incredible pilots, so I can\u2019t wait to fly with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Will she be the first woman on the moon? \u201cI don\u2019t need to be the first, I just want to be a part of this program,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She hopes to do some bioengineering experiments in microgravity, such as tissue engineering applications. \u201cOn Earth under gravity, cells are limited by their own weight, and their sizes are limited, so they can usually only grow in two dimensions, where in space without Earth\u2019s gravity, they expand more readily.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n NASA Astronaut Candidate Christopher Williams. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hailing from Potomac, Maryland, Williams, 38, graduated from Stanford University in 2005 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics and from MIT in 2012 with a doctorate in physics with a focus on astrophysics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a kid, he remembers drawing the space shuttle and watching shuttle launches on TV. \u201cThat kind of instilled in me both this passion for space exploration but also this interest in science,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In between Stanford and MIT, he took a gap year to work as a radio astronomer at a naval research lab in Washington and to research supernovae at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center. He also worked on the side as an EMT and as a volunteer firefighter, skills he brought with him to MIT. \u201cBeing an EMT helped me learn how to stay calm and manage pretty challenging and difficult situations, but also to give back to the community that I\u2019m a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At MIT, he focused on astronomy and astrophysics with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. With his adviser, Jackie Hewitt, they worked on building the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to look at the very early universe to understand how the first stars and galaxies formed and what that did to the evolution of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet\u2026 \u201cI kind of had that astronaut dream still blowing away in the back of my mind and getting to interact with some of the MIT astronauts was a great way to kind of keep adding that flame,\u201d he says. \u201cThe building that my office was in, every morning I\u2019d walk in and see a picture of Ron McNair on the wall that was pretty inspiring to see, and knowing that he\u2019d come from MIT as well, I\u2019d think about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After MIT, he took a left turn, applying his physics knowledge to medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Williams is a board-certified medical physicist who completed his residency training at Harvard Medical School before joining the faculty as a clinical physicist and researcher. He most recently worked as a medical physicist in the Radiation Oncology Department at the Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He was the lead physicist for the Institute\u2019s MRI-guided adaptive radiation therapy program, and his research focused on developing image guidance techniques for cancer treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Williams also met his future wife, Aubrey Samost-Williams \u201910, SM \u201915 at MIT, and they now have a 2-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019ll be kind of a unique and interesting background that I can hopefully bringing contribute to the space program, because I hopefully bring in both my astronomy and astrophysics background, but also knowledge of radiation and medicine,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He still hopes to continue his graduate work at NASA. \u201cThe moon is actually a great place to put a low-frequency radio wave around, because it can shield you from some of the radio noise from Earth and that could allow us to probe some of the universe in a range of the electromagnetic spectrum that we\u2019ve never been able to do before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NASA Artemis Generation is an initiative to put the first woman (and next man) on the moon by 2024. The first class to graduate under NASA\u2019s Artemis program, in 2020, included\u00a0three aeronautics and astronautics alumni<\/a>, Raja Chari SM \u201901, Jasmin Moghbeli \u201905, and Warren \u201cWoody\u201d Hoburg \u201908. Former Whitehead Institute research fellow Kate Rubins, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009 and had served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station, also joined the team. (source- scitechdaily.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We hope so! Go Christina! NASA\u2019s 10-Member Astronaut Candidate Class of 2021 Includes 3 MIT Alumni TOPICS:AstronautMITNASA By SANDI MILLER, MIT DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS DECEMBER 9, 2021 Marcos Berr\u00edos, Christina Birch, and Christopher Williams were among the 10 new NASA astronaut candidates selected out of a pool of more than 12,000 applicants. They will report to astronaut … Read moreChristina Birch is Getting Spaced Out?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","pmpro-has-access"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"NASA](\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/images\/NASA-Astronaut-Candidate-Christina-Birch-320x400.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMarcos Berr\u00edos<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Christina Birch<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Christopher Williams<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nNASA Astronaut Candidate Marcos Berr\u00edos. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n\n\n\nMarcos Berr\u00edos<\/h4>\n\n\n\nA native of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Berr\u00edos, 37, is a U.S. Air Force major and test pilot who received his bachelor\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering from MIT and a master\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering as well as a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA distinguished pilot, Berr\u00edos has accumulated more than 110 combat missions and 1,300 hours of flight time in more than 21 different aircraft. \u201cAs a test pilot I really I truly believe in the human space exploration mission, and I would love to contribute to the development of the new vehicles that are going to take us to the moon,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAt the time of his selection as a NASA astronaut candidate, Berr\u00edos served as the commander of Detachment 1, 413th<\/sup> Flight Test Squadron and deputy director of the CSAR Combined Task Force. While a reservist in the Air National Guard, Berr\u00edos worked as an aerospace engineer for the U.S. Army Aviation Development Directorate at Moffett Federal Airfield in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be an astronaut,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I was five or six, I wanted to travel to nebulas and other galaxies. The book \u2018Ender\u2019s Game\u2019 was probably the book that certainly helped continue that inspiration for exploring space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nA voracious reader of astronaut autobiographies, he decided to emulate them by getting his PhD and joining the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBerr\u00edos says that MIT first began preparing him for the rigors of being an astronaut during the \u201chours and hours and hours of trying to finish all the problem sets that we had to do it in a week. I think that discipline alone absolutely prepared me to handle or tackle anything else that that came my way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI went into mechanical engineering because I wanted to build things,\u201d he adds. \u201cI wanted to use my hands. I took 2.007, a class I would Google when I was in high school \u2014 that class alone motivated me to want to go to MIT. I think those hands-on skills are extremely important for astronauts. On a space station, we do need to, you know, fix the toilet, we do need to maintain that vehicle in space, and so I think the hands-on skills, the problem-solving skills that I got from studying at MIT will be extremely helpful.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nNASA Astronaut Candidate Christina Birch. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n\n\n\nChristina Birch<\/h4>\n\n\n\nBirch, 35, grew up in Gilbert, Arizona, and graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor\u2019s degree in mathematics and a bachelor\u2019s degree in biochemistry and molecular biophysics. At MIT she worked in the Niles lab in the Department of Biological Engineering, gained skills in engineering and communication, and was active on the MIT cycling team.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter earning a doctorate in biological engineering from MIT, she taught bioengineering at the University of California at Riverside, and scientific writing and communication at Caltech. But she was pulled back to cycling competitions, and left academia to become a decorated track cyclist on the U.S. National Team, and at one point was bound for the Olympics. While she was on hand to support her Olympics teammates in Japan this summer, she also lined up her second interview with NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs a professional athlete track cyclist, her training regimen will come in handy. \u201cMy training is going to be very varied and require a lot of different physical skills, so some of the things I\u2019ve already started to do is finally work on my upper body, which we neglect as cyclists. So, I\u2019m trying to work on shoulder strength and flexibility grip strength preparing for a spacewalk training in the neutral buoyancy lab.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cBeing an astronaut was always a dream sort of in the background, but I really don\u2019t think it was until I was working in the lab doing experiments in biology, bioengineering, and chemistry. I saw what was going on in the in the Space Station and seeing similar experiments being done up there, and I said, \u2018Hey you know, this is a skill set that I have. Maybe I have other things I can contribute.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s still sort of sinking in, the fact that I\u2019m sitting here in the flight suit,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m really excited to be training in the T-38 jets, because half my class are incredible pilots, so I can\u2019t wait to fly with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nWill she be the first woman on the moon? \u201cI don\u2019t need to be the first, I just want to be a part of this program,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe hopes to do some bioengineering experiments in microgravity, such as tissue engineering applications. \u201cOn Earth under gravity, cells are limited by their own weight, and their sizes are limited, so they can usually only grow in two dimensions, where in space without Earth\u2019s gravity, they expand more readily.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nNASA Astronaut Candidate Christopher Williams. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n\n\n\nChristopher Williams<\/h4>\n\n\n\nHailing from Potomac, Maryland, Williams, 38, graduated from Stanford University in 2005 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics and from MIT in 2012 with a doctorate in physics with a focus on astrophysics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs a kid, he remembers drawing the space shuttle and watching shuttle launches on TV. \u201cThat kind of instilled in me both this passion for space exploration but also this interest in science,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn between Stanford and MIT, he took a gap year to work as a radio astronomer at a naval research lab in Washington and to research supernovae at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center. He also worked on the side as an EMT and as a volunteer firefighter, skills he brought with him to MIT. \u201cBeing an EMT helped me learn how to stay calm and manage pretty challenging and difficult situations, but also to give back to the community that I\u2019m a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAt MIT, he focused on astronomy and astrophysics with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. With his adviser, Jackie Hewitt, they worked on building the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to look at the very early universe to understand how the first stars and galaxies formed and what that did to the evolution of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd yet\u2026 \u201cI kind of had that astronaut dream still blowing away in the back of my mind and getting to interact with some of the MIT astronauts was a great way to kind of keep adding that flame,\u201d he says. \u201cThe building that my office was in, every morning I\u2019d walk in and see a picture of Ron McNair on the wall that was pretty inspiring to see, and knowing that he\u2019d come from MIT as well, I\u2019d think about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter MIT, he took a left turn, applying his physics knowledge to medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWilliams is a board-certified medical physicist who completed his residency training at Harvard Medical School before joining the faculty as a clinical physicist and researcher. He most recently worked as a medical physicist in the Radiation Oncology Department at the Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He was the lead physicist for the Institute\u2019s MRI-guided adaptive radiation therapy program, and his research focused on developing image guidance techniques for cancer treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWilliams also met his future wife, Aubrey Samost-Williams \u201910, SM \u201915 at MIT, and they now have a 2-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019ll be kind of a unique and interesting background that I can hopefully bringing contribute to the space program, because I hopefully bring in both my astronomy and astrophysics background, but also knowledge of radiation and medicine,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe still hopes to continue his graduate work at NASA. \u201cThe moon is actually a great place to put a low-frequency radio wave around, because it can shield you from some of the radio noise from Earth and that could allow us to probe some of the universe in a range of the electromagnetic spectrum that we\u2019ve never been able to do before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe NASA Artemis Generation is an initiative to put the first woman (and next man) on the moon by 2024. The first class to graduate under NASA\u2019s Artemis program, in 2020, included\u00a0three aeronautics and astronautics alumni<\/a>, Raja Chari SM \u201901, Jasmin Moghbeli \u201905, and Warren \u201cWoody\u201d Hoburg \u201908. Former Whitehead Institute research fellow Kate Rubins, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009 and had served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station, also joined the team. (source- scitechdaily.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We hope so! Go Christina! NASA\u2019s 10-Member Astronaut Candidate Class of 2021 Includes 3 MIT Alumni TOPICS:AstronautMITNASA By SANDI MILLER, MIT DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS DECEMBER 9, 2021 Marcos Berr\u00edos, Christina Birch, and Christopher Williams were among the 10 new NASA astronaut candidates selected out of a pool of more than 12,000 applicants. They will report to astronaut … Read moreChristina Birch is Getting Spaced Out?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","pmpro-has-access"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/images\/NASA-Astronaut-Candidate-Marcos-Berrios.jpg\"){kind=link}
![<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nNASA Astronaut Candidate Christina Birch. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n\n\n\nChristina Birch<\/h4>\n\n\n\nBirch, 35, grew up in Gilbert, Arizona, and graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor\u2019s degree in mathematics and a bachelor\u2019s degree in biochemistry and molecular biophysics. At MIT she worked in the Niles lab in the Department of Biological Engineering, gained skills in engineering and communication, and was active on the MIT cycling team.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter earning a doctorate in biological engineering from MIT, she taught bioengineering at the University of California at Riverside, and scientific writing and communication at Caltech. But she was pulled back to cycling competitions, and left academia to become a decorated track cyclist on the U.S. National Team, and at one point was bound for the Olympics. While she was on hand to support her Olympics teammates in Japan this summer, she also lined up her second interview with NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs a professional athlete track cyclist, her training regimen will come in handy. \u201cMy training is going to be very varied and require a lot of different physical skills, so some of the things I\u2019ve already started to do is finally work on my upper body, which we neglect as cyclists. So, I\u2019m trying to work on shoulder strength and flexibility grip strength preparing for a spacewalk training in the neutral buoyancy lab.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cBeing an astronaut was always a dream sort of in the background, but I really don\u2019t think it was until I was working in the lab doing experiments in biology, bioengineering, and chemistry. I saw what was going on in the in the Space Station and seeing similar experiments being done up there, and I said, \u2018Hey you know, this is a skill set that I have. Maybe I have other things I can contribute.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s still sort of sinking in, the fact that I\u2019m sitting here in the flight suit,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m really excited to be training in the T-38 jets, because half my class are incredible pilots, so I can\u2019t wait to fly with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nWill she be the first woman on the moon? \u201cI don\u2019t need to be the first, I just want to be a part of this program,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe hopes to do some bioengineering experiments in microgravity, such as tissue engineering applications. \u201cOn Earth under gravity, cells are limited by their own weight, and their sizes are limited, so they can usually only grow in two dimensions, where in space without Earth\u2019s gravity, they expand more readily.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nNASA Astronaut Candidate Christopher Williams. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n\n\n\nChristopher Williams<\/h4>\n\n\n\nHailing from Potomac, Maryland, Williams, 38, graduated from Stanford University in 2005 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics and from MIT in 2012 with a doctorate in physics with a focus on astrophysics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs a kid, he remembers drawing the space shuttle and watching shuttle launches on TV. \u201cThat kind of instilled in me both this passion for space exploration but also this interest in science,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn between Stanford and MIT, he took a gap year to work as a radio astronomer at a naval research lab in Washington and to research supernovae at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center. He also worked on the side as an EMT and as a volunteer firefighter, skills he brought with him to MIT. \u201cBeing an EMT helped me learn how to stay calm and manage pretty challenging and difficult situations, but also to give back to the community that I\u2019m a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAt MIT, he focused on astronomy and astrophysics with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. With his adviser, Jackie Hewitt, they worked on building the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to look at the very early universe to understand how the first stars and galaxies formed and what that did to the evolution of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd yet\u2026 \u201cI kind of had that astronaut dream still blowing away in the back of my mind and getting to interact with some of the MIT astronauts was a great way to kind of keep adding that flame,\u201d he says. \u201cThe building that my office was in, every morning I\u2019d walk in and see a picture of Ron McNair on the wall that was pretty inspiring to see, and knowing that he\u2019d come from MIT as well, I\u2019d think about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter MIT, he took a left turn, applying his physics knowledge to medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWilliams is a board-certified medical physicist who completed his residency training at Harvard Medical School before joining the faculty as a clinical physicist and researcher. He most recently worked as a medical physicist in the Radiation Oncology Department at the Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He was the lead physicist for the Institute\u2019s MRI-guided adaptive radiation therapy program, and his research focused on developing image guidance techniques for cancer treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWilliams also met his future wife, Aubrey Samost-Williams \u201910, SM \u201915 at MIT, and they now have a 2-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019ll be kind of a unique and interesting background that I can hopefully bringing contribute to the space program, because I hopefully bring in both my astronomy and astrophysics background, but also knowledge of radiation and medicine,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe still hopes to continue his graduate work at NASA. \u201cThe moon is actually a great place to put a low-frequency radio wave around, because it can shield you from some of the radio noise from Earth and that could allow us to probe some of the universe in a range of the electromagnetic spectrum that we\u2019ve never been able to do before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe NASA Artemis Generation is an initiative to put the first woman (and next man) on the moon by 2024. The first class to graduate under NASA\u2019s Artemis program, in 2020, included\u00a0three aeronautics and astronautics alumni<\/a>, Raja Chari SM \u201901, Jasmin Moghbeli \u201905, and Warren \u201cWoody\u201d Hoburg \u201908. Former Whitehead Institute research fellow Kate Rubins, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009 and had served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station, also joined the team. (source- scitechdaily.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We hope so! Go Christina! NASA\u2019s 10-Member Astronaut Candidate Class of 2021 Includes 3 MIT Alumni TOPICS:AstronautMITNASA By SANDI MILLER, MIT DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS DECEMBER 9, 2021 Marcos Berr\u00edos, Christina Birch, and Christopher Williams were among the 10 new NASA astronaut candidates selected out of a pool of more than 12,000 applicants. They will report to astronaut … Read moreChristina Birch is Getting Spaced Out?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","pmpro-has-access"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/images\/NASA-Astronaut-Candidate-Christina-Birch.jpg\"){kind=link}
![<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nNASA Astronaut Candidate Christopher Williams. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n\n\n\nChristopher Williams<\/h4>\n\n\n\nHailing from Potomac, Maryland, Williams, 38, graduated from Stanford University in 2005 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics and from MIT in 2012 with a doctorate in physics with a focus on astrophysics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs a kid, he remembers drawing the space shuttle and watching shuttle launches on TV. \u201cThat kind of instilled in me both this passion for space exploration but also this interest in science,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn between Stanford and MIT, he took a gap year to work as a radio astronomer at a naval research lab in Washington and to research supernovae at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center. He also worked on the side as an EMT and as a volunteer firefighter, skills he brought with him to MIT. \u201cBeing an EMT helped me learn how to stay calm and manage pretty challenging and difficult situations, but also to give back to the community that I\u2019m a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAt MIT, he focused on astronomy and astrophysics with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. With his adviser, Jackie Hewitt, they worked on building the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to look at the very early universe to understand how the first stars and galaxies formed and what that did to the evolution of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd yet\u2026 \u201cI kind of had that astronaut dream still blowing away in the back of my mind and getting to interact with some of the MIT astronauts was a great way to kind of keep adding that flame,\u201d he says. \u201cThe building that my office was in, every morning I\u2019d walk in and see a picture of Ron McNair on the wall that was pretty inspiring to see, and knowing that he\u2019d come from MIT as well, I\u2019d think about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter MIT, he took a left turn, applying his physics knowledge to medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWilliams is a board-certified medical physicist who completed his residency training at Harvard Medical School before joining the faculty as a clinical physicist and researcher. He most recently worked as a medical physicist in the Radiation Oncology Department at the Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He was the lead physicist for the Institute\u2019s MRI-guided adaptive radiation therapy program, and his research focused on developing image guidance techniques for cancer treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWilliams also met his future wife, Aubrey Samost-Williams \u201910, SM \u201915 at MIT, and they now have a 2-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019ll be kind of a unique and interesting background that I can hopefully bringing contribute to the space program, because I hopefully bring in both my astronomy and astrophysics background, but also knowledge of radiation and medicine,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe still hopes to continue his graduate work at NASA. \u201cThe moon is actually a great place to put a low-frequency radio wave around, because it can shield you from some of the radio noise from Earth and that could allow us to probe some of the universe in a range of the electromagnetic spectrum that we\u2019ve never been able to do before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe NASA Artemis Generation is an initiative to put the first woman (and next man) on the moon by 2024. The first class to graduate under NASA\u2019s Artemis program, in 2020, included\u00a0three aeronautics and astronautics alumni<\/a>, Raja Chari SM \u201901, Jasmin Moghbeli \u201905, and Warren \u201cWoody\u201d Hoburg \u201908. Former Whitehead Institute research fellow Kate Rubins, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009 and had served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station, also joined the team. (source- scitechdaily.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We hope so! Go Christina! NASA\u2019s 10-Member Astronaut Candidate Class of 2021 Includes 3 MIT Alumni TOPICS:AstronautMITNASA By SANDI MILLER, MIT DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS DECEMBER 9, 2021 Marcos Berr\u00edos, Christina Birch, and Christopher Williams were among the 10 new NASA astronaut candidates selected out of a pool of more than 12,000 applicants. They will report to astronaut … Read moreChristina Birch is Getting Spaced Out?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","pmpro-has-access"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/images\/NASA-Astronaut-Candidate-Christopher-Williams.jpg\"){kind=link}