#DesignYourHabitat Guests

 SciArt Exchange is honored to have featured these amazing guests. 
Thank you, Everyone, for your help supporting our global community!

*Guests noted below also joined us for our
Sensing Space Creative Stage at the 2020 Humans to Mars Summit!

​Maria Almena, Creative Director at Kimatica studio and Art Curator at Art in Flux 
Maria Almena is a Spanish London-based creative director, art curator and a multimedia artist. She is the co-founder of the creative studio, Kimatica, as well as co-founder of the charitable organisation Art in Flux. Maria's practice is exploring concepts of human consciousness and perception, making those transcendental ideas accessible to a modern audience, to inspire reconnection with magical thinking and the ethereal world. She is fascinated by the juxtaposition of the physical and spiritual, the virtual and real worlds, and scientific and artistic concepts. She enjoys playing with perception aiming to transport the viewer into new worlds, using experimental technologies to dramatise the transition between different states of being and highlighting the importance of the journey in itself. 

​Dr. Michael Barratt, NASA Astronaut and Medical Doctor
​Dr. Michael R. Barratt was selected by NASA in 2000. Board certified in Internal and Aerospace Medicine, he has participated in two spaceflights. In 2009, Dr. Barratt served as Flight Engineer for Expedition 19/20. This marked the transition from three to six permanent International Space Station crew members. During this time, he performed two spacewalks. He also flew on STS-133, which delivered the Permanent Multipurpose Module and fourth Express Logistics Carrier. Currently, Dr. Barratt serves in the International Space Station Operations and Integration branches to handle medical issues and onorbit support.

​​​​Tamalee Basu, Space Architect 
Tamalee Basu is a space architect, with an MS in Space Architecture from the University of Houston. She has worked for aerospace companies such as the private space company Excalibur Almaz developing augmented reality animations for patented inventions and also has worked with Intuitive Machines involving the lunar lander Nova-C. Completing a Bachelor's in Architecture from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, she has won several awards for her architectural and design projects. She is also an online instructor of architecture at ACEDGE, an E-learning platform for architecture.

Daniel G. Benes, Science Popularizer and Science Show Host
Daniel's Science Shows and custom enrichment programs have been featured at schools, academies, libraries, and museums across the state of Texas, and on TV and Radio (including NPR’s The Texas Standard) and in numerous magazines (including Texas Monthly and The New York Times). Daniel's Interactive Science and Antique Technology Exhibits have been awarded 5 Staff Pick Blue Ribbons by Maker Faire Austin, and have been featured at SXSW Interactive and the Bullock Texas State History Museum. Daniel is also an award-winning multi-instrumentalist Ambient/World music composer and recording artist, specializing in keyboards and Native American Flutes. He is also a former 2-time FM Austin radio show host and producer, and a member of W.A.T.T. (World Association of Technology Teachers), and a lifelong learner devoted to inspiring others. You can find him at: http://scienceshows.tech, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and [email protected]

Dr. John Charles, Scientist in Residence at Space Center Houston & Former NASA Chief Scientist
John Charles is a life-long space nerd and a long-time NASA life scientist and manager fascinated with spaceflight history and the space life sciences. He retired from NASA after thirty-three years as a cardiovascular investigator. He says his career highpoint was his six years as Chief Scientist of NASA’s Human Research Program, guiding NASA biomedical research on the International Space Station in preparation for sending astronauts to Mars.  John is currently the first scientist-in-residence at Space Center Houston, the official visitors center of the Johnson Space Center, among other positions in consulting and education. 

Christina Ciardullo, Space Architect, SEArch+
Ciardullo is a seasoned space architect with B.A. and M.A. degrees in astronomy, philosophy and architecture from Columbia University. She was also a International Space University Studies Program graduate in Human Performance in Space and has worked as an architect in many prestigious locations, including Carnegie Mellon University, Buckminster Fuller Institute, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is currently a senior architect at LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) and the co-founder of SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architecture), a NASA-awarded, research collaborative for technological and scientific integrations for architecture in extreme environments, including space!

Mickey Fisher, Creator and Writer
MICKEY FISHER (Creator/Writer) is the creator of the sci-fi event series EXTANT (CBS), Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg and Amblin Television, starring Halle Berry, and REVERIE (NBC), Executive Produced by Amblin Television, starring Sarah Shahi. He was also a Consulting Producer on MARS (NatGeo), Executive Produced by Ron Howard and Imagine, a Co-Executive Producer for THE STRAIN (FX), Executive Produced by Guillermo Del Toro and Carlton Cuse, and Season Two of JACK RYAN (Amazon), Executive Produced by Carlton Cuse. In 2018, his play REPLICA received its world premiere at Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, where it made the year end “Best Of” lists in a number of local and regional publications.

​Sheyna Gifford, Physician, Aerospace Med. Researcher, and STEAM Educator/Communicator
Dr. Gifford is a rehabilitation physician at Washington University/Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. Originally from Studio City, CA, Dr. Gifford has been a scientist-in-residence at the St. Louis Science Center and an alien-in-residence for NASA in multiple space simulations. She is a STEM mentor and advocate, researcher, journalist, and professional science communicator. Her professional contact email is [email protected]

Taylor Green, Personal Trainer and Bodybuilder
Taylor is a seasoned 14-year Personal Trainer, with a B.S. in Kinesiology from Liberty University and a Personal Training certification from AAFA. He specializes in weight loss,  athletic training, bodybuilding, sports conditioning, injury prevention, and injury rehabilitation. Over the years, his trusted name has given him the opportunity to work with professional athletes of various sports. Additionally, his passion for fitness led him into competitive bodybuilding where he has continually placed in the Physique category and ultimately landed him a spot as a brand ambassador and sponsored athlete. Taylor believes that slow and steady consistency and dedication to whole-body fitness, together with clean eating, is the key to overall wellness and well-being. 

Jayson Kretzer, Comic Illustrator and Executive Director, Bay Arts Alliance
Jayson has been a full time artist for more than 20 years, but recently he became the Executive Director for the Bay Arts Alliance in Panama City, FL. He has worked as a graphic designer creating logos, political campaigns, corporate images, etc. He created and maintained a weekly webcomic, Wannabe Heroes which has turned into a full color comic book now going on its third issue. He was also a concept artist for board games including Last Stand produced by Woodtop Worlds. www.jaysonkretzer.com

Robyn Landau, Wellbeing Scientist & Artist
Robyn explores the science of creativity and its impact on the brain and body. The focus of her work in Neuroaesthetics sits at the intersection of art and science and explores how our actions and experience of the world around us impacts our state of being. As a dancer, ceramicist and yoga practitioner, Robyn's multidisciplinary approach fuses these organic and energetic schools of thought into her work to build interventions to enhance wellbeing. Robyn believes that making art can make us feel better, especially during a time of stress, and that we don't need to travel somewhere new, or even leave the room, to feel like we're being transported somewhere new and exciting.  ​

Dr. Stan Love, NASA Astronaut and Planetary Scientist
​Dr. Stanley G. Love was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1998. He has Master of Science and Doctorate of Philosophy degrees in Astronomy from the University of Washington in Seattle. In 2008, Dr. Love flew aboard STS-122 to deliver and install the European Space Agency’s Columbus module to the station. While onboard, Dr. Love performed two spacewalks to prepare for the installation, add two science payloads, and carry a failed ISS gyroscope to the shuttle for return to Earth. He currently works as the Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office's Rapid Prototying Laboratory, developing cockpit displays and controls for Orion and forthcoming spacecraft.

​*Dr. Jancy McPhee, SciArt Exchange Executive Director and Neuroscientist 
McPhee is a neuroscientist, space life scientist, and Founder of SciArt Exchange. Through the nonprofit, she develops motivating and novel ways to enhance space education and communication, foster science and technology innovation, and promote global collaboration to solve hard challenges. Both her training in neuroscience and her hobbies, music and theater, have greatly influenced her work and the nonprofit.

Holly Melear, Founder and Director, STEAMSpace​
Founder and Director of STEAMSPACE™ Education Outreach, Holly Melear is creating education outreach for all students globally, in order to move out, up and beyond. By creating an opportunity for collaboration with businesses, entrepreneurs, researchers and the space industry, STEAMSPACE Education Outreach Program offers students an all-inclusive community in which to grow and gain an edge in the world of future space entrepreneurship and education. Holly’s STEAMSPACE initiatives include the highly-successful Cities in Space Student Conference and Competition. Holly has experience as an educational advocate and teacher, consultant, coordinator, event director and artist. Holly truly values the integration of STEAM education, Project Based Learning and Social Emotional Learning into education. 

*Tom Middleton, Sound Designer, Composer & Functional Music Creator 
Tom Middleton is an award winning sound designer, composer and creator of functional music and soundscapes for immersive wellness, integrating breathwork and biophilia. He creates science-based music for health and well-being to mitigate anxiety, boost motivation and focus, aid relaxation and improve sleep.  His current music project under the name GCOM is an album which soundtracks the journey to Mars and beyond to explore habitable Exoplanets that one day may be a new home for mankind. A pioneering Electronic musician and DJ, he has toured the world and performed to millions over 3 decades observing the positive affects of sound, and has shared the stage with Mark Ronson, Lady Gaga and Kanye West. www.tommiddleton.com

*Dr. Annahita Nezami, Chartered Psychologist and Founder of VR-Overview-Effect, 
Dr Annahita Nezami is a chartered Psychologist who works in private practice in London. She has devoted her professional career to researching and simulating the Earth gazing experience (The Overview Effect) via virtual reality. The VROE team created a short Earth gazing meditation clip to share it with as many people as possible whilst in lock down.  www.annahitanezami.com

*Ari Peralta, MBA, CEO, & FOUNDER, Arigami
Ari Peralta is an award-winning research entrepreneur working alongside a network of scientists, immersive technologists, and designers developing wellness-led sensory initiatives across a wide range of industries. He co-launched Arigami, an independent research consultancy dedicated to helping organisations build healthier and happier environments. Arigami is a leading provider for Wellness & Innovation Intelligence within retail, hospitality, mobility and healthcare. Ari has been featured in Forbes, RetailWeek, Design Retail Magazine, Car & Driver, Yahoo Finance and over 100 international publications. He also dedicates a significant amount of his time speaking to university students and government officials and is a recognised philanthropist working with STEAM Education, Art & Health, and Alzheimer charities. Ari volunteered his time to help develop the initial 8-week #DesignYourHabitat Campaign, graciously sharing his network to identify speakers and spending numerous late nights editing guest videos!  

​Donald Pettit, Astronaut and Engineer
Donald R. Pettit (Ph.D) was selected by NASA in 1996. The Silverton, Oregon native holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Oregon State University and a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona. Prior to becoming an astronaut, he worked as a staff scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico. A veteran of three spaceflights, Pettit served as NASA Science Officer for Expedition 6 in 2003, operated the robotic arm for STS-126 in 2008 and served as a Flight Engineer for Expedition 30/31 in 2012, where he lived aboard the International Space Station for more than 6 months.

​Anastasia Prosina, Space Architect, Stellar Amenities
​Anastasia Prosina is an award-winning aspirational futurist and practitioner in Space Architecture, the nascent field of helping people thrive in small spaces in outer space. She is the Founder & CEO at Stellar Amenities, a company with the mission of complementing space habitats with lightweight, deployable & reconfigurable elements to support wellbeing in space.

*Francesca Rosella, Co-Founder and Chief creative Officer, CuteCircuit
​Francesca Rosella is a fashion designer, architect, wearable technology visionary, and sustainability champion. She has degrees interior architecture and Master’s degrees in Sustainable Design, and in Interaction Design, the latter from the prestigious Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Italy. Francesca co-founded CuteCircuit with Ryan Genz in 2004. CuteCircuit is the world’s first wearable technology fashion brand, pioneering the merging of fashion with technology and creating groundbreaking award-winning interactive fashions that have been featured in exhibitions and publications all over the world and won numerous awards. Most recently Francesca received the UNESCO Netexplo Innovation Award for creating "technology that improves life". Francesca holds a number of patents in the field of wearable technology, such as sensor-enhanced fabric constructions and multimedia wearable telecommunication devices.

Amy Ross, NASA Space Suit Engineer
Amy Ross is an advanced spacesuit designer at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Early in her career, she worked with veteran spacesuit designer Joseph Kosmo on a new glove design. Kosmo and Ross looked specifically at a new glove design for extravehicular activities, or EVAs, to replace the 4000 series EVA glove, introduced in 1985. Ross's current projects include the Exploration Extra-vehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) Pressure Garment Subsystem, which will be the Artemis space suit worn by astronauts walking on the Moon in the mid-2020's. Ross said her parents' careers at NASA, as well as a summer tending animals, influenced her decision to pursue a career in science.

Helen Schell, Space Artist and STEAM Educator
Helen Schell's artwork is inspired by 21st century space exploration and science. She has spent 12 years visiting and collaborating with space scientists in the UK and the United States. The space themed artworks take the form of large mixed media installations, paintings and Smart Materials costumes creating optical illusions to depict space environments. They are presented under the umbrella project of ‘The Human Spaceship’, inventing geometric optical illusions to manipulate colour, form and light.  For 11 years, she has devised and presented space themed workshops and talks for schools and communities using STEAM methods. Her aim is to engage diverse audiences of all abilities from across the UK and internationally. Learn more about Feature Artist Helen Schell here.

​Nicole Stott,  Astronaut-Artist 
Stott is an astronaut and artist who creatively combines the awe and wonder of her spaceflight experience with her artwork to inspire everyone’s appreciation of our role as crewmates here on Spaceship Earth. A veteran NASA Astronaut with two spaceflights, she lived and worked in space for 104 days as a crewmember on both the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle.

*​Francisco (Xico) Teixeira, Creative Neurotechnologist, MuArts 
Francisco is the CEO & co-founder of MuArts, a BCI start-up specialized in using the Neurofeedback model for the arts and media. He has a BSc in Psychology and a MSc in Neuroscience from King´s College London and 3 years of research in the University of Porto and 5 years of clinical Neurofeedback practice at Neurobios - Neuroscience Institute.

​*Jozef Youssef, Founder, Chef Patron and Creative Director of Kitchen Theory
​Jozef Youssef is the founder and chef patron of collaborative gastronomic project, Kitchen Theory, an experimental kitchen with a focus on the multi-sensory elements of dining. Jozef and his team work with scientists, academics and artists to research and develop sensory gastronomic food experiences.​ www.kitchen-theory.com

Dr. Frank White, Philosopher, Speaker, Author
Space philosopher and author Frank White wrote The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution, first published in 1987 and re-issued in 1998. He interviewed dozens of astronauts to understand and communicate the overview effect, a term he coined, to describe the powerful shifts in the way people think about Earth and life after seeing the whole planet from space. He is the author or co-author of eight additional books on space exploration and the future. He also contributed chapters on the Overview Effect to four recently published books on space exploration.

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