Author: Lisa Peacocke

  • Dr Sarah Kessans – Launching a space lab into orbit

    Dr Sarah Kessans, a lecturer in the University of Canterbury’s School of Product Design, is passionate about growing stuff in space, ultimately food, fuel and pharmaceuticals to benefit society. Dr Kessans received $200,000 of 2019 Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge (SfTI) Seed Project Funding to develop a space biology laboratory to work towards…

  • Sarah Kessans: proteins in space

    Sarah Kessans started her academic career studying plants; now the self-confessed ‘space geek’ is a synthetic biologist trying to build New Zealand’s role in the global space economy. Her research takes place on board 10cm3 nano-satellites and aims to understand how protein crystals grow in microgravity. This knowledge can then be used here on Earth…

  • TEDxChristchurch: How to eat ketchup on Mars

    Dr Sarah Kessans is a US-born New Zealand scientist and biochemist, a multi-national champion in rowing and was in the top 50 applicants—out of over 18,000—in the NASA astronaut programme. She’s earned degrees in plant and molecular biologies, worked on a plant-based HIV vaccine, and is now working at the cutting edge of synthetic biology…