Crew 290 Crew biographies, photos and mission patch 08Jan2024

[title  Crew biographies, photos and mission patch – January 8th]

Mars Desert Research Station

Crew Biographies

Crew 290 – Project MADMEN

Jan 7th – Jan 20th, 2024

Crew Members:

Commander and Health and Safety Officer: Madelyn Hoying

Executive Officer and Health and Safety Officer: Rebecca McCallin

Crew Scientist: Anja Sheppard

Green Hab Officer: Benjamin Kazimer

Crew Engineer: Anna Tretiakova

Crew Journalist: Wing Lam (Nicole) Chan

Madelyn Hoying (Commander and co-Health and Safety Officer) is a PhD candidate in the joint MIT and Harvard Medical School Medical Engineering and Medical Physics program, and an M.S. in AeroAstro at MIT. Her Ph.D. research in the Tearney Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital investigates aerospace physiology leading to novel medical devices for long-duration spaceflight. Her M.S. research targets development of planetary exploration architectures. Madelyn graduated from Duquesne University in 2020 with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.A. in Physics, where she was a 2020 nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award as a member of the NCAA D1 swim team. In addition, Madelyn designs and leads analog missions to test new technologies, human operations, crew dynamics, and recovery procedures in simulated planetary surface exploration missions.

Rebecca McCallin (Executive Officer and co-Health and Safety Officer) completed her Bachelors of Science in Biology with a concentration in human physiology at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. While a student, she competed as an NCAA Division I rower and as the lead biologist of Duquesne’s NASA’s RASC-AL Challenge team. The product of the RASC-AL mission was Project ALIEN, which was enhanced and developed into Crew 290’s MDRS mission to search for life on Mars! In addition to her extraterrestrial research, Rebecca is the lab manager for the Janjic Lab at Duquesne University where she manufactures and develops nanoparticles. In her free time, she volunteers as an EMT with her hometown fire department.

Anja Sheppard (Crew Scientist) is a doctoral candidate in Robotics at the University of Michigan, where her research focuses on autonomous navigation and perception for robots in extreme environments. Anja is passionate about robotic and human spaceflight, as well as establishing ethical and political frameworks for space exploration. In her free time, she DJs at the local radio station and enjoys reading on her porch.

Ben Kazimer (GreenHab Officer) is a research engineer at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and a space food enthusiast. At Lincoln Lab, he works on sensor modeling and deployment. Outside of work, Ben is excited about the food landscape in space. In his free time, he enjoys going to see live music concerts and experimenting with new landscapes.

Anna Tretiakova (Crew Engineer) is an undergraduate sophomore student at Boston University, majoring in mechanical engineering. Outside her studies she works at SiLab, an engineering makerspace situated on the BU campus. Here, she not only engages in hands-on activities but also teaches fellow students; guiding them in mastering the intricacies of woodworking, metalworking, and textile machinery. Anna seizes every opportunity for adventure, embarking on camping, hiking, and backpacking escapades whether it’s a single vacation day, an entire week, or even a full month. On these trips Anna does her best to scout for some freshly cut logs to later bring into the shop to commemorate the trip by making bowls, utensils, trays, cutting boards and jewelry boxes – whatever the log allows!

Wing Lam (Nicole) Chan is a senior in Aerospace Engineering at MIT and minoring in Computer Science. She is currently doing research at the MIT Aerospace Controls Lab with Prof. Jonathan How on improving multi-agent autonomous trajectory planner via hexacopter drone flight tests. Nicole is passionate about space autonomous systems and systems engineering in long-duration planetary missions. It is her dream to see one of her robotic creations roam the unknown surfaces of the Moon, Mars, and beyond. This is her first time at MDRS and she is stoked to experience lots of firsts on this Martian adventure. Outside of academics, Nicole is an avid sci-fi reader and enjoys playing a wide variety of videogames with friends.