Meet Dr. Marc O’Griofa, MD, PhD, FAWM
Working and training astronauts on the Aquarius Habitat is an exciting and important job, and we’re very fortunate to have the same team working with us here on The Hab Lessons! Over the next few months, we’ll get to know them through the lessons, videos, live-streams and Q&A sessions as we learn more about the earth’s oceans, the move from sea to space, and what we might be doing in space in the future.
In the meantime, meet our host!
Marc O’Griofa MD PhD FAWM
Meet Some of Our Guests
We’re fortunate to have a number of scientists, innovators and visionaries joining us during the livestreams to talk about some of the most exciting science being developed today – VR tech, robotics, oceans conservation, anti-aging and so much more. Students will be able to email questions to our guests as well as to Dr. O’Griofa, and we’ll be discussing projects being done by our guests as well as student and class projects.
Meet some of our guests below!
William “Bill” Todd
In 2000, Bill developed the NASA Undersea Research Team “NEEMO” (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) program. This program utilizes the Aquarius Underwater Sea Laboratory in the Florida Keys as a research facility for space missions and long-term space habitation. He served as an inaugural aquanaut on its first 2000 “NASA SEATEST” mission. In 2001 he commanded the first “NASA NEEMO 1” official mission, which was a joint NASA-NOAA program to study human survival in the Aquarius extreme environment in preparation for future space exploration. He subsequently managed the “topside” teams for multiple NASA missions and was the Mission Director for NEEMO 7, NEEMO 8, and NEEMO 14. After founding the program and overseeing its success for the past 16 years Bill now serves as Project Manager for NEEMO thru NEEMO 22 (June 2017).
Nicole Stott | Astronaut (Ret), Artist
Nicole began her career in 1987 as a structural design engineer with Pratt and Whitney Government Engines in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she spent a year with the Advanced Engines Group performing structural analyses of advanced jet engine component designs. Nicole joined NASA at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, in 1988 as an Operations Engineer in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF). During her time at KSC, she held a variety of positions within NASA Shuttle Processing. In 1998, she joined the Johnson Space Center (JSC) team in Houston, Texas, as a member of the NASA Aircraft Operations Division, where she served as a Flight Simulation Engineer (FSE) on the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) helping train astronaut pilots to land the space shuttle. In July 2000, Nicole was selected by NASA for the Astronaut Corps as a mission specialist and member of the 18th class of NASA astronauts. In April 2006 she was a crewmember on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO 9) mission, where she lived and worked with a six-person crew on the longest duration NEEMO mission to date – 18 days on the Aquarius undersea research habitat.
Nicole completed her first long-duration space flight as a Flight Engineer on International Space Station Expeditions 20 and 21 in 2009. She launched to the ISS on Space Shuttle Discovery with the crew of STS-128. Nicole completed her second space flight as a Mission Specialist on STS-133 in 2011, which was the 39th and final mission for Space Shuttle Discovery. After completion of the STS-133 mission, Nicole returned to KSC for a one-year assignment as the Astronaut Office representative to the Commercial Crew Program. In 2012, she returned to JSC where she served in the Astronaut Office. Now as a retired NASA Astronaut, Nicole is pursuing her next adventure as a full time artist.
