Our first shirt of 2019 is “Royalty”, and here’s the photoshoot. I chose two researchers, Ruby Kleijwegt, and Jon Lombardino, to model the shirts. Beyond their connection to astrobotany, both Ruby and Jon work in science education and outreach, which happens to be our major focus for 2019-2020.

Ruby Kleijwegt

Ruby is an astrophysics major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ruby got a head start in science by taking night classes in biotechnology while still in high school- and now she pays it forward by helping out with astrobotany outreach. Ruby’s next project is implementing plant habitats into classrooms so NASA target crops can be studied by younger students.

Jon Lombardino

Jon is a genetics major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was immediately interested in how plant gene expression changes during spaceflight. Jon’s educational philosophy is to have students drive their own research by way of their own curiosity. Jon is involved in several outreach projects, including the Wisconsin Science Festival, Saturday Science, and bringing the TOAST genetic database to his high school.

Photos were taken by Mitch Port in the Gilroy Lab and Botany Greenhouse at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Let’s grow plants in space.