CORVALLIS – Terri Lomax, a professor of botany at Oregon State University, has been appointed director of the Fundamental Space Biology Division at NASA. The division, which she will direct for the next 2-4 years, is a $150 million annual research program that studies the effects of space on the physiology, development and function of living organisms.
For Lomax, the appointment culminates a lifelong interest in space science and years of NASA-supported research at OSU on such topics as the role of gravity in plant growth. Most recently, she also served as director of OSU’s new Program for the Analysis of Biotechnology Issues.
For OSU, the selection of a faculty member for an influential administrative post such as this represents another evolution in its historically close ties with NASA. The university is a Space Grant institution, has many research projects funded by the space agency, and currently has one of its alumni, engineer Donald Pettit, orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station.
“I’m overwhelmed to be selected for a position such as this,” Lomax said. “It’s especially exciting right now, because with the upcoming completion of the space station, NASA is committed to a renewed emphasis on space science, and this division is responsible for much of the agency’s biological research. It will be a great opportunity to help plan good research projects, develop new technologies and be involved in federal policy development.”
The recent disaster with the space shuttle Columbia, Lomax said, does not appear to have affected the space agency’s commitment to the type of science that will be done in the Space Biology Division.
“The shuttle tragedy may have changed our schedule a little, but I don’t sense any change in the long-term goals we have for this type of space research,” Lomax said. “Most of our work is proceeding on schedule, we may temporarily use some Russian spacecraft to get some experiments to the space station, and we’ll use this event as an opportunity to look at everything we’re doing with a fresh eye and make sure our research programs reflect the best science we can develop.”
Fundamental space biology programs, NASA officials say, examine gravity’s role in the evolution and development of terrestrial organisms and ecological systems, as well as how plants and animals, especially humans, react and adjust to the effects of different gravity levels. It may address questions about cellular processes in space, the physical effects of space flights on organisms, or the role of gravity in life on Earth.
New technology development is also an integral part of this research, Lomax said, in such fields as biological information processing, bio-imaging systems, genomics technologies and in-situ measurement and control.
For years, Lomax’s own research at OSU has considered the role of gravity in the development of organisms. She’s studied, for instance, the mechanisms by which a seed buried in the soil literally can tell which way is up and which is down, so it can send its “roots and shoots” in the right direction.
One of her experiments that actually made its way onto the space shuttle – which also happened to be the flight that carried space pioneer John Glenn – examined vascular development in plants.
“There are certain cells in plants that help it draw up water and also maintain the rigidity of the plant,” Lomax said. “Our shuttle experiment determined that plants produce fewer of these cells in the absence of gravity, presumably because fewer cells are needed to keep the plant stem rigid. Among other things, these are also the cells that, in trees on Earth, turn into what we commonly call wood. There’s still a lot we need to learn about how gravity affects the growth of organisms here on Earth.”
Lomax said she developed a serious interest in space research as an undergraduate in college, and, among other topics, has taught at OSU an astrobiology course about life in the universe. She still has four active research projects under way at OSU, which she will manage by a brief return to Corvallis about one week a month.
In some of her more recent work, Lomax developed and was named the first director of OSU’s Program for the Analysis of Biotechnology Issues. This outreach initiative sought to do original research and public education on the controversial and complex topics related to gene research and biotechnology. In that role, Lomax has worked with legislators, interest groups and the general public, and tried to ensure that policy decisions by agency or political leaders were grounded in solid science – experience that she said may have been appealing to NASA in her selection to head this division.
“I’ve been moving for some time towards understanding how scientific research has to be coordinated with public attitudes, societal needs and state or federal policies,” Lomax said. “Now I’m going to take some of those experiences to a national and international level, since 16 different countries work on the International Space Station.”
“It should be an exciting experience, and also when my NASA term expires I’ll be able to bring back to OSU a better understanding of these matters.”
