UPDATED! ✨ NU CIERA: Kate Rubins - synthetic biology 🔭 now at 3PM North Campus

***** THIRD PARTY EVENT *****

## CSB and CIERA Seminar - Kate Rubins, Retired NASA Astronaut

When: Tuesday, February 3, 2026
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CT
Where: Pancoe-NSUHS Life Sciences Pavilion, 2200 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Contact: Yael Mayer (847) 467-3509
[yael.mayer@northwestern.edu](mailto:yael.mayer@northwestern.edu)
Group: Center for Synthetic Biology
Co-Sponsor: CIERA - Affiliated Seminars and Events

Category: Academic, Lectures & Meetings

### Description:

Kate Rubins, PhD
Retired Astronaut
Professor of Computational and Systems Biology
School of Medicine
University of Pittsburgh
The Center for Synthetic Biology, in collaboration with the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), is pleased to welcome Dr. Kate Rubins, microbiologist and retired NASA astronaut, for a seminar exploring how insights from space-based genomics and systems biology can inform synthetic biology approaches to waste reclamation, environmental sensing, and biological operation in remote, resource-constrained environments on Earth and beyond.
Kate Rubins is a world-renowned expert in molecular and cellular biology for use in low-Earth orbit and low resource environments. At Stanford, she co-developed the first smallpox animal model and genomic tools for high-consequence viral diseases. At MIT, she mapped the poxvirus transcriptome and led mpox fieldwork in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since becoming a NASA Astronaut in 2009, she has led the development of molecular techniques for human health in space and served as Deputy Director for NASA Health and Human Performance. She is a Major in the Army Reserve and regularly collaborates across government agencies. Her 300 days on the International Space Station included four spacewalks, the first DNA sequencing in space, and microgravity research on cardiomyocytes, organoids, and synthetic biology.

https://planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/637808