Dr. Antonio Ricco – NESC Academy Biography

Antonio J. Ricco received BS and PhD degrees in chemistry from UC Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively.  He’s held positions at Sandia National Laboratories, the University of Heidelberg (visiting professor), ACLARA BioSciences, the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute (Dublin City University; adjunct professor), Stanford University, and NASA Ames Research Center.  His R&D experience includes chemical microsensors and microsystems; polymer microfluidic systems for biotech research and pathogen detection; point-of-care medical diagnostic devices; autonomous bioanalytical systems for space biology and astrobiology studies aboard small satellites; and search-for-life analytical payloads for missions to the icy worlds of the solar system.

At NASA/Ames, where he is presently on secondment from Stanford, he has served as project technologist for the GeneSat, PharmaSat, O/OREOS, EcAMSat and SporeSat spaceflight nanosatellite missions; instrument scientist and mission manager for the O/OREOS mission; and payload technologist for the BioSentinel deep space mission. He is PI of the NASA projects SPLIce: Sample Processor for Life on Icy Worlds and MICA: Microfluidic Icy-world Chemical Analyzer, and a member of the ESA Topical Team on Future Astrobiology Experiments in Earth Orbit and Beyond.

Dr. Ricco is co-author of over 280 publications, 450 presentations, and 23 issued patents.  He was an E.T.S. Walton Fellow (Science Foundation Ireland), is a Fellow of The Electrochemical Society and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and serves as Vice President of the Transducer Research Foundation.