Michael Busch – Mining, Geology & Geoscience
Michael has a BS in Physics and a BS in Astronomy from the University of Minnesota. He is currently a graduate student in planetary science at Caltech. His research interests include the physical properties and dynamics of asteroids, water in the near-surface of Mars, and mining techniques on asteroids and Mars. Visit his website here.

Following ten years as a Senior Scientific Officer with the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell and Winfrith, John moved to the US in 1968. There, he worked twenty years for Westinghouse, first directing safety work for fast reactors -- including the Fast Flux Test Facility and the Clinch River Breeder Reactor -- and then becoming the Regulatory Manager for the Basalt Waste Isolation Project at Hanford, WA.

In 1989, he became Director of Safety for AECL-Research, at the Chalk River and Whiteshell sites, to license the facilities for the first time under the Control Board. In 1992, he returned to the US to join BNFL Inc., becoming Vice President with responsibility for Environment, Health and Safety, and Quality Assurance, from the Denver office. Since 1998, he has been a partner in ETCetera Assessments LLP, a firm specializing in technical safety assessments for such organizations as the IAEA, DOE, and private corporations. He has worked with the American Nuclear Society for over thirty years: serving for four years as the National Treasurer and for fourteen years as a Director of the Society. He was Vice President and President of the ANS from 1994 to 96.

Paul Graham – Building Trades & Mars Suits
Paul has been working as an Engineer for the Mars Society's Mission Support since the FMARS 2002 season, and is the current Engineering Team Coordinator. He attended Colorado School of Mines where he studed Engineering Physics, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering as a triple major. He has worked in every building trade, including several years as a plumber, a tinner and an electrician, has extensive RV experience from construction, repair, refitting and living and even spent a few days working on the ARES rover.

Currently he is the CTO of Alpine Systems, a PC consulting company where he loves to teach people how to use their computers in a fun creative manner, and Alpine Systems Engineering, a Linux/Unix consulting and Web/e-mail hosting company where he spends most of his time building and breaking servers and figuring new and creative ways to use or abuse computers and electronic hardware. He is currently working on several Embedded controller real time telemetry and streaming media projects. He is also working with developing rural broadband using several wireless technologies. His other interests include writing (He is currently writing a novel, having several published short stories and non-fiction magazine articles), photography, videography, theater, acting, mountaineering, hiking and other outdoor activities, SCUBA diving, and he is an amateur radio operator (KC0IFZ).

Vernon Kramer – Mining, Geology & Geoscience
Vernon holds a B.S. in Mining Engineering from Texas Western College and an M.S. in Geology from the University of Texas at El Paso. His work in mining and exploration spans 30 years and his work experience extends from the underground miner with dynamite in one hand and a pick in the other to managing international exploration offices overseeing multiple million dollar budgets. He has conducted multi-national exploration in Asia, including Afghanistan, Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia, as well as in both North and South America, for metallic and non-metallic commodities such as limestone, gold, oil and gas, copper, and uranium, to name a few. Coming full circle, he now works to motivate and educate the next generation of scientists and engineers, as a professor of Geology at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Roshanak Nilchiani, Ph.D. - Mission Planning & Analysis
Roshanak Nilchiani is a Research Assistant Professor of Systems Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology.  She is pursuing research on System of Systems testing and evaluation and Systems Readiness Levels (SRLs). She received her Ph.D. is Aerospace Systems from MIT in 2005 focusing on flexible space systems design and architecture.   Dr. Nilchiani is the author of many articles in the area of space systems  and has collaborated with various research groups on the next generation Mars Rovers, and nuclear-powered Mars missions. In addition, she has provided technical advice for space mission analysis and planning to various companies in the past few years and has also served as a technical advisor to S2L, a start-up science fiction movie company.

Nathan Owen-Going, Ph.D. - Agricultural Systems
Nathan obtained his degrees in Agriculture (BSc) and Environmental Biology (MSc and PhD) from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He has worked with numerous plant pathogens and crops of greenhouse and controlled environment systems utilizing both soil and hydroponic media. As an epidemiologist, his early work has helped to develop and evaluate novel technologies to increase water and nutrient use efficiency in self-sustaining hydroponic systems. A useful byproduct of this early work was the statistical extension of results from benchtop experiments to applications on a commercial scale, enhancing information transfer from the lab to practical applications. Later, Nathan's biochemical host-pathogen interaction work devloped a greater understanding of the role of phenolic and isoprenoid metabolites not only in the evolution of disease simptoms, but also in the generation of abiotic stresses in hydroponically-grown crops. In short, Nathan's graduate work led to the development of abiotic and biotic technologies to sterilize or filter water and to manipulate populations of beneficial microorganisms in the root zone to enhance plant health and productivity. On Terra, these technologies have proven essential in increasing the environmental compliance of hydroponic operations in Leamington, Ontario (Canada) which is North America's fastest-growing hydroponic community. Nathan has served on several committees for the Canadian Phytopathological Society. He currently works in Ottawa for the Canadian government as a fertilizer efficacy evaluator specializing in microbial supplements and moonlights as an independent agricultural and life sciences consultant.

Joseph Palaia, III – Water, Wastewater and Waste Management
Joseph holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Arizona State University. He started his career more than 30 years ago in the field of Air Pollution Control dealing with coal mining operations and rock quarries for industrial clients. Joe also brings more than 28 years of experience in studies, design, construction and project management, with a large environmental consulting firm, specializing in water, watewater treatment plant design, and solid waste disposal projects for large municipal clients.

Jim Pass, Ph.D. - Astrosociology
Jim Pass received his doctorate in sociology at the University of Southern California in 1991. At the time, his interests and substantive area exams focused on deviance and political economy. He has taught at Long Beach State, and is currently holds a position at Long Beach City College in California. Dr. Pass founded the field of Astrosociology, a new field of study focused upon the social ramifications of space exploration. He continues to pursue pioneering research in this field, and to teach others of the importance of it to future society.

Pablo Rivera Jimenez - Aquaculture Systems
Pablo grew up in a small mining town in Colima state, México. The pollution of the town's river by a local iron mine led to an early interest in aquatic organisms. He attended technical school in Colima, studying Technical Chemistry in 1987. In 1994, he received a bachelors degree in Oceanology, specialized in biology. During this time period, he traveled to the United States to visit the Scripps Institute, which influenced his passion for marine sciences.

Back in México, he worked as an independent technician in environmental impact studies until 1997, when he and two others founded the company Acuícola S.A. This company is focused on environmental studies, as well as aquaculture projects in Colima, and in the rest of Mexico. His has worked with fish farms in diverse locations through Mexico, primarily focusing on tilapia and white shrimp in freshwater. He has also recently joined others specialists to search for new methods of generating dissolved oxygen in culture ponds. Besides managing his company, he works as an independent contractor with the University of Colima and with various other farms.

Michael Rudis – Architectural, Civil and Structural Concepts
Michael has three long standing interests: architecture, environmental sustainability and the exploration of outer space.  He has made efforts to mingle these at every opportunity in his career path.  Mr. Rudis holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture with an emphasis in Project Management from Portland State University and is currently working on a MS degree in Space Architecture from SICSA at the University of Houston.  His thesis project is the design of a high performance, rapidly deployable emergency habitation module to provide shelter in extreme climates and natural disaster zones.  His experience with space and architectural human factors design intersected with his 0-Gravity experience onboard NASA’s KC-135 aircraft while testing a next generation sleep restraint he co-designed and fabricated for astronaut use.  This prompted a NASA invitation for an internship with the Johnson Space Center’s Habitation & Human Factors Branch and Advanced Projects Office on their Lunar Habitat Mock-ups project.  Mr. Rudis’ professional experiences also include supporting project engineers in class 1A heavy construction, with industry leader Hoffman Construction Co. and Portland State University’s Facilities & Planning AECS division, where he provided design and project management services and support on a range of projects varying in size and scope that included interior remodels, demolition and new construction.