FEATURE
An Internship to ASPIRE To
By Cassie Myers Photos by Jim Gensheimer
FEATURE
An Internship to ASPIRE To
By Cassie Myers Photos by Jim Gensheimer
Students in the ASPIRE program study in NASA research labs to help unlock the secrets of exobiology and astrobiology.
In the refrigerator of a fairly nondescript NASA lab, there are rocks older than Earth itself.
These rocks are meteorite samples, and they’re 4.5 billion years old, to be precise. They sit in the lab of George Cooper, Research Scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, where they are studied by several SJSU students (among others) as part of their Astrobiology Scholars Program Immersive Research Experience (ASPIRE) program internships.
The ASPIRE program, which grew out of a NASA grant led by Andro Rios, assistant professor of chemistry at San José State, aims to create greater diversity at NASA by connecting students from community colleges and state universities to internships in NASA astrobiology and exobiology projects. The current program recruited students from Skyline College in San Bruno and SJSU, aiming to turn summer research internships into career opportunities.
“My goal is that this program will help to recruit, mentor and train SJSU and community college undergraduates who aspire to become the next generation of space scientists,” says Rios. “The ASPIRE program represents the first step in developing a long-term NASA-funded astrobiology research program at SJSU.”
Students in the ASPIRE program work in exobiology and astrobiology labs at NASA's Ames Research Center.
ASPIRE students are paid to work on NASA internships all summer and then remain connected with their internship mentors throughout the following two years, learning not just scientific research practices but also career development skills.
“Early career researchers and students may be intimidated by the prospect of a career at NASA or perhaps see it as something that is only possible for a selected few,” says Alfonso Davila, a research scientist in the exobiology branch at NASA and one of the ASPIRE mentors. “Quite the contrary, anybody who is willing to put in the work may become a NASA scientist or engineer. The ASPIRE program offers a hands-on opportunity to do NASA research and to interact with scientists in a professional setting. This type of program makes NASA a more accessible institution, and less intimidating.”
The ASPIRE students are also helping researchers contribute to answers to some of the biggest questions. Is there life beyond Earth? How did life begin, and with what materials? Are we alone in the universe?
These student/mentor pairings may help us find out.
The student: Tara Vaddiraj, ’25 Biochemistry, SJSU
The mentor: Andro Rios, assistant professor of chemistry, SJSU
The research: Discovering the origins of metabolism
The tagline: How did life begin?
Tara Vaddiraj hard at work in the NASA laB.
Tara Vaddiraj, ’25 Biochemistry, arrived at NASA on the day of our interview wearing a shirt with cat scientists, and she only got cooler from there. Her work with the ASPIRE program is largely remote, since she operates out of Rios’ SJSU lab, where she’s studied since 2023. Her internship continues her work on Rios’ “prebiotic chemistry” project, which aims to discover the origins of metabolism.
As she explains, “One of the main compounds involved in metabolism is pyruvate. And we’re interested in seeing how pyruvate chemistry became so significant in the metabolic processes that are involved in making energy for our bodies. The purpose of our research is to understand what compounds may have come before pyruvate or how pyruvate was involved in a network of reactions to become significant to metabolism.”
She spends her lab time synthesizing and testing compounds to see how they react to different materials and chemicals. She and her fellow researchers may discover how pyruvate first formed and what led to other developments on the long road to life as we know it.
Vaddiraj has found the ASPIRE program enlightening and helpful. Along with her lab work, she’s participated in Blue Marble Space Young Scientist Program, an online program for aspiring scientists that offers professional development, networking and other crucial skills alongside their research activities. And she’s appreciated the chance to dedicate so much of her time to science without having to worry about other jobs.
“ASPIRE has made me more committed to research and being a student intern,” she says. “It’s helped boost both my education and my experience; I'm learning more and I feel more involved.”
Vaddiraj has had some deeply frustrating moments in the lab, including a week-long struggle to get a particularly tricky procedure perfected in order to monitor the production of a new moleculec, but she still values the experience greatly. She also appreciates all of Rios’ support. “He's really understanding, always willing to explain things. And he's always there to help.”
She hopes to bring her newfound skills and knowledge into her future career, possibly in pharmaceutical research or medicinal chemistry.
“ASPIRE has made me more committed to research and being a student intern. It’s helped boost both my education and my experience.”
— Tara Vaddiraj
“I always wanted to explore space. I always wanted to see if there's life beyond Earth. So I thought, I'll chuck my hat in the ring and see what happens.”
— Cesar Meza
The student: Cesar Meza, Skyline College Student transferring to SJSU in fall 2024
The mentors: Alfonso Davila, Research Scientist at NASA’s AMES Research Center, and Craig Everroad, Research Scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center
The research: Testing the limits of minimal viable populations of bacteria in extreme environments
The tagline: How do bacteria survive in extreme (even non-Earth) environments? What is the minimal viable population of bacteria?
Cesar Meza and mentor Craig Everroad in the lab. Photo by Jim Gensheimer.
ASPIRE students work in the lab on long-term projects, examining samples and running experiments.
Students in the ASPIRE program are matched with NASA mentors to experience hands-on science and cutting-edge research.
Cesar Meza, a Skyline College student who transferred to SJSU in fall 2024, came to microbiology after a “fleeting passion” with robotics and coding.” The ASPIRE program ticked all his boxes. “I always wanted to explore space. I always wanted to see if there's life beyond Earth. So I thought, I'll chuck my hat in the ring and see what happens,” he says.
Craig Everroad, NASA biological research scientist, shares his passion for microbiology. He’s been at NASA for 12 years, ever since he came as a postdoctoral fellow in 2012, and he’s serving as Meza’s secondary mentor in the lab.
“I like to tinker with bugs,” he says (meaning bacteria). “I like to catch bugs. I like to put them through their paces to see what they can do.”
And Meza is very much along for the ride. The two of them and Meza’s primary mentor Alfonso Davila are working on a project that studies bacteria in extreme environments. This could help scientists and researchers understand how life could evolve — and what kind of life might evolve — on other planets.
“For astrobiology, we’re thinking about potential habitats on icy moons or the subsurface of Mars,” Everroad explains. “We want to understand what bacteria on Earth do in similar environments. What are the processes they go through? What are the gases and pigments they make? When they die, what happens to their bodies? “I study the bacteria here on Earth to try to understand better what to look for [on other planets].”
This work complements Davila’s: “I also work with teams of scientists and engineers in the design of spacecraft missions to explore other planets, where I help define the types of measurements we would want to do to establish whether they contain life,” he explains.
So Everroad and Davila often collaborate on projects, including the one Meza is attached to, which examines whether bacteria need to have a minimum viable population (MVP) in order to survive in various environments, and just what that MVP might be.
Meza was excited to work on the project. “Bacteria, extinction, minimal viable population. This is practically a dream for me,” he says. He was initially nervous to work in a professional lab, but is really enjoying his time there.
“Alfonso and I have very similar philosophies about mentorship,” Everroad explains, “so we pretty much threw Cesar into the fire. We didn't want to just say, ‘Do these repetitive tasks all by yourself without any bigger picture.’ So we gave him the proposal we had written and then said, ‘Go do your research and come back and tell us in your own words what this project is about.’ That's pretty daunting. But he did it. He's really impressed me so far with his drive to find answers. He knows when to ask questions. He synthesizes well. And now we're actually getting into the lab.”
“Cesar is very passionate about science and the process of discovery,” agrees Davila. “He has taken ownership of the project, which means he is invested in seeing it through. As far as internships go, I can’t think of a better outcome. ASPIRE was conceived as an opportunity to experience science in a real-life setting, but also as a collaborative effort. I think the program has delivered on both counts, and I hope this will have a positive impact on Cesar and the other students.”
For his part, Meza is highly enthusiastic about the project and its implication for life on other planets. “You take a look at these extreme environments where these bacteria thrive. We're talking scorching temperatures, arctic deserts, subterranean environments where light doesn't even shine,” he explains. “Saturn’s moon Enceladus has this thick sheet of ice that light doesn't even pierce through. But right under that sheet is an ocean. And in that ocean, potentially there could be microbes.”
Meza describes it colorfully: “If you eat a full donut on Earth, that gives you energy. But if we’re on Enceladus, that donut is basically limited. We only have a little piece once every few weeks, or maybe less. So we want to know: Is it even feasibly possible to live with just that tiny piece of donut given out only every other month or so?”
They may find out; even only a month in, the team is clearly gelling. “Cesar just hit the ground running,” Everroad says. “It's been great. If anything, I think we're probably going too slow for Cesar.”
The student: Roger Boucher, Skyline Community College
The mentor: George Cooper, Research Scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center
The research: Chemical analysis and origins of organic material in extraterrestrial samples
The tagline: What can meteorites teach us about the origins of life on Earth and the potential of life on other planets?
Roger Boucher (left) and fellow intern Stephen Ball, '26 Chemistry, work with George Cooper on is chemical analysis research. Photo by Jim Gensheimer.
George Cooper, research exobiologist at NASA and Roger Boucher’s ASPIRE program mentor, humbly describes the day to day work in his lab as “boring chemistry,” but it’s clear that Boucher doesn’t agree. Cooper, after all, is the one handling 4.5 billion year-old meteorites – and of course “handling” is not meant literally, since even a little bit of contamination with Earth materials and chemicals can throw off experimental results.
Boucher, a continuing student with a degree in American history, returned to school at Skyline College because of his deep interest in chemistry — he’s now working with Cooper because of his newfound passion for exobiology, the study of life beyond Earth. He describes the field as “attempting to tackle one of the biggest philosophical questions that humanity has ever faced: Is there life beyond our planet?”
He works alongside another intern, Stephen Ball, ’26 Chemistry, to chip away at an answer.
“Dr. Cooper encourages us to think on our feet,” Boucher says. “He’ll provide us with a workflow and constantly ask ‘How can we do this better?’ I like how he challenges us. There's a lot of problem solving related to the project, not just chemically but also mechanically. He’s a very nice guiding hand.”
Cooper has mentored countless interns and young scientists over the years, and he appreciates ASPIRE’s approach. “It's very good for students to get practical experience. I think all students should do an internship in the sciences to help them learn techniques that actually end up helping them in their classes as well as their resumés. I like seeing that.”
“Dr. Cooper encourages us to think on our feet. He’ll provide us with a workflow and constantly ask ‘How can we do this better?’ I like how he challenges us.”
— Roger Boucher
Bonus Spartan: Stephen Ball, '26 Chemistry SJSU
Stephen Ball, '26 Chemistry (front), works with ASPIRE program interns while completing his own NASA internship.
While not an ASPIRE program participant, Ball is another member of Rios’ lab team at SJSU who is also interning at NASA this summer, working with Cooper and alongside Boucher. He specializes in gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS), another crucial part of this research.
The chemistry in Cooper’s lab involves extracting chemicals and materials from meteorites (very, very carefully) and then examining and testing them. The team is on the hunt for specific chemicals that are present in life, as well as others that may explain how life developed. As Ball explains, “If we find those chemicals in the meteorite, we think that it's an indicator of life outside the planet.”
Like Boucher, he's learned a great deal from Cooper. “When you ask him questions he can give you very in-depth answers. It's almost like you're getting a university lecture because he goes into so much detail and really gives you the full rundown of what it is you're working on,” Ball says. He plans to use his internship experience and all the knowledge he’s gleaned from it in his future classes as well as his research in Rios’ lab when he returns to campus in fall 2024.
Andro Rios (seated) with ASPIRE program interns and Stephen Ball. Photos: Jim Gensheimer.
ASPIRE isn't all serious work. It's also about the joy in science.
ASPIRE-ational
It's obvious from even brief interactions with student and mentor pairs that these projects have already led to fruitful collaboration. The ASPIRE program is doing precisely what it’s meant to do: connecting local students with NASA scientists, and helping them contribute to extraordinary (even extra-planetary) endeavors.
After all, exobiology and astrobiology can help humanity in countless ways, from creating potential medical therapies to understanding the beginnings of life on Earth and possibly elsewhere. The ASPIRE program is, appropriately, all about aspirations: asking profound questions and following where they lead.
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