Kenneth A. Souza

Mr. Souza spent 35 years with NASA, pioneering the field of space biology and biomedicine. Under his leadership, more than 400 biological experiments were flown on a variety of spacecraft, including U.S. and Russian biosatellites, the Space Shuttle, Mir, and the International Space Station. Those experiments greatly expanded our understanding of the role and influence of gravity on living systems, and also contributed to the identification and mitigation of some of the risks associated with human spaceflight. He was instrumental in the negotiation with the Russian Space Agency, i.e., Bion Biosatellites and Mir; with the Japanese, i.e., Spacelab-J, Space Station Biological Research Project, and the European Space Agency, i.e., Neurolab.

As a research scientist, he conducted research in exobiology and developmental space biology. His flight experiment aboard the Space Shuttle in 1992 demonstrated for the first time that a vertebrate species (amphibian) could complete ovulation, fertilization, and early development in the virtual absence of gravity.

He has published over 50 scientific articles in fields of exobiology, space biology and biomedicine, and received both national and international awards for his management and scientific achievements, most recently the 2010 AIAA/ICES Jeffries Award for Contributions to Space Life Sciences and Medicine.

Mr. Souza is currently a senior scientist with CSS/Dynamac Corp, and supports NASA’s Life Sciences programs at the Ames Research Center (CA).