On September 26, Dr. John Z. Kiss and his collaborators were honored with NASA’s Group Achievement Award – one of the agency’s prestigious Honor Awards – for “outstanding contributions to enabling exploration.”
NASA’s Honor Awards are presented to government and non-government individuals and groups who have distinguished themselves by making outstanding contributions to the agency’s mission. College of Arts and Sciences Dean Kiss and his team received the award for their collaboration with the European Space Agency on the Seedling Growth-3 project.
Seedling Growth-3 is one in a series of joint projects between NASA and the European Space Agency that are exploring light- and gravity-signaling in plants.
As part of the project, seedlings are sent into space, to the International Space Station, to be exposed to varying light and gravity conditions before being returned to Earth. Results could have implications for agriculture here on Earth, and for efforts to develop the plant-based life support systems necessary for the next steps in human space exploration. Learn more about Dr. Kiss’s work on this project in UNCG Research Magazine.
Young seedlings from a ground test for the experiment. [Photo provided by John Z. Kiss]
Photo: Dr. John Z. Kiss (right) and postdoctoral student
Story by Hope Voorhees
