Houston, TX -- 4 JAN 10
University of Texas Student Works on NASA Ground Breaking Research Project Through USRP Internship
Texas resident Oscar Sosa is a Fall 2009 intern with the Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP) at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Sosa is working in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science branch.
Sosa is working with a NASA mentor Dr. Igor Brown during his 15 weeks in Houston, TX. Sosa’s main project is titled Bio-processing of lunar regolith: application for lunar habitation. The base of this project is to study cyanobacteria or blue-green algae because of its capabilities to liberate some elements, first of all iron, from iron rich minerals as well as to accumulate iron from the environment. These properties are supposed to be used for the development of new biotechnologies for moon exploration.
“My project will contribute to our understanding of the cellular processes by which these organisms accumulate iron and are able to convert it to different iron-rich compounds,” state Sosa. “Working with cyanobacteria species that have never been studied before is very exciting. At the same time, having the opportunity of being trained by scientists with a different background from mine…has exposed me to new ways of approaching and analyzing scientific problems.”
Sosa is a senior at the University of Texas – Brownsville. He plans to graduate with a Biology degree in May 2010.
“I chose to major in Biology driven by my passion for wildlife and nature,” comments Sosa. “Science is not only time working in a lab or studying books, it is an activity that people with similar interests and passions such as learning, educating, discovering, and adventuring share and I have been fortunate enough to meet those people.”
Source: Jaclyn Juergens, of the Universities Space Research Association
