Kristina Koch at the NASA Space Radiation Summer School 2011
After Kristina Koch in 2011, Arif A. Chishti was selected in 2012 to participate in the NASA Space Radiation Summer School (“NSRSS”). In their doctoral theses, Arif A. Chishti and Kristina Koch work on space radiation biology topics since 2009 in the Cellular Biodiagnostics Group of the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine.
The NSRSS took place at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY, USA, from 28th of May till 15th of June 2012. This summer school was co-sponsored by NASA’s Space Radiation Research Program, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), and Universities Space Research Association (USRA).
Basic aim of NSRSS was to train researchers to tackle the challenges of harmful radiation exposure to humans on space exploration missions. NSRSS was well organized and taught by leading university and national laboratory biologists and physicists. Students were intensively engaged and motivated for learning heavy ion experimentation and methods with relevant lectures. DNA damage and repair, genotoxicity, cell cycle checkpoints and apoptosis, mutagenesis, genomic instability, epigenetics, cell and tissue signaling, neurodegeneration, systems biology, as well as the space radiation environment, physics and biochemistry of charged particle interactions, track structure, dosimetry, accelerator operations and space radiation protection were the hot topics of NSRSS. Arif and Kristina participated in a heavy ion experiment at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at BNL.
For questions concerning