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Diana Gentry

Research Scientist

Contents

Division: NASA Ames Research Center (ARC)

Branch: Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)

Personal

Born in Manhattan, raised in Yonkers, New York, and educated in Exeter, New Hampshire, Diana Gentry broke with tradition and declined to follow three generations of lawyers in her family.  Instead, she became a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.  There, she is the lead for the Ames Aerobiology Laboratory and a co-director of the Bioengineering and Instrumentation Group, part of Ames’s Biosciences Collaborative Laboratory.  In what little free time that leaves, she enjoys community-building, science fiction, tabletop and video games, roller coasters, and good vegetarian cooking.

Education

Dr. Gentry graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 2001.  She received a Bachelor of Science with Distinction in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in California in 2005.  As a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship recipient, she was part of the inaugural NASA Ames Graduate Cooperative Program class, allowing her to work jointly at NASA Ames Research Center while completing her graduate studies.  She earned her Ph.D. from Stanford in 2015 for her thesis “Unlocking Synthetic Biomaterials: Manufacture of Structural Biogenic Materials via 3D-printed Arrays of Bioengineered Cells”.

Experience

Dr. Gentry’s mission experience began as an undergraduate intern supporting NASA Ames’s GeneSat 1 space biology mission.  During her graduate studies, she supported and eventually led several high-altitude ballooning expeditions and one suborbital rocket project studying the viability of life in planetary atmospheres.  She also joined an early-career initiative and its follow-on project, FELDSPAR, which mapped the distribution of life in Mars analog environments in Iceland; this included fieldwork in extreme environments and following simulated mission schedules, logistics, and other operations.  After becoming a full-time researcher at Ames, she served as part of the science team for the BioSentinel mission, which used payloads on both the International Space Station and free-flying small spacecraft to study the risks of long-term damage from space radiation.  She is currently a member of the science team for the Lunar Explorer Instrument for space biology Applications (LEIA) mission, which follows on from BioSentinel to specifically evaluate radiation- and gravity-related biological effects of a lunar mission environment.  Dr. Gentry most recently received a 2023 NASA Early Career Initiative (ECI) award to study technology for sampling planetary aerosols, supporting a possible Venus mission and other applications. 

Research Interests

Dr. Gentry is the director of Ames’s Aerobiology Laboratory (ABL), which studies the requirements for life to survive and thrive in planetary atmospheres.  The ABL’s scope includes laboratory and benchtop analog work; fieldwork using drones, balloons, and airplanes; instrument and mission concept development for exploration of planetary atmospheres; and collaboration with development of theoretical models.  Dr. Gentry is also a co-director of the Bioengineering & Instrumentation Group (BEInG) Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center, which develops cross-disciplinary tools for studying environment/microbe interactions.  Its recent work includes development of early-stage fluidics and sensing systems, as well as supporting data analytics.  It has a particular focus on improving experimental design for integration of disparate data types. BEInG Lab work includes both micro- and molecular biology protocols and prototype-level hardware and software development. 

Awards & Others

  • NASA Ames Research Center Director’s Management Reserve Group Achievement Award, “For advancing Ames BioSciences capabilities and future work prospects through the competitive selection of a lunar science payload proposal (LEIA)”, 2022. 
  • NASA Ames Spotlight Award, for “Leadership in both Venus aerobiology science and the BioSentinel mission as a science-engineer liaison”, 2020. 
  • Patent No. 10,815,474 for “A System for the 3D Construction of Biologically Derived Materials, Structures, and Parts”,  via NASA Ames Research Center, 2019. 
  • David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship, 2008. 
  • Stanford Mechanical Engineering Graduate Fellowship, 2005. 
  • Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, May 2004. 
  • Cox Medal, 2001. 

Select Publications

  • M. L. Cable, A. M. Sessa, E. Rader, A. C. Simpson, A. M. Hanna, D. M. Gentry, S. M. Sutton, E. S. Amador, C. Novak, C. LeCates, M. Helmlinger, A. M . Stockton.  “Geochemical and physical variability of Icelandic tephra fields and glaciovolcanic sandur to inform spatial sampling in Mars biosignature searches.” (2023) Planetary and Space Science, 232:105694.  doi:10.1016/j.pss.2023.105694 
  • L. C. Liddell, D. M. Gentry, R. Gilbert, D. Marina, S. M. Tieze, K. Akiyama, K. Keenan, S. Bhattacharya, S. R. Santa Maria.  “BioSentinel: Validating Sensitivity of Yeast Biosensors to Deep Space Relevant Radiation.” (2023) Astrobiology, 23(6):648-656.  doi:10.1089/ast.2022.0124 
  • F. Westall, D. Hoening, G. Avice, D. Gentry, T. Gerya, C. Gillmann, N. Izenberg, M.J. Way, and C. Wilson.  (2023)  The habitability of Venus. In C. F. Wilson, D. Breuer, C. Gillmann, S. E. Smrekar, T. Spohn and T. Widemann (Eds.), Venus: Evolution Through Time (ISSI Space Sciences Series vol 87).  International Space Science Institute. doi:10.1007/s11214-023-00960-4 
  • B. Harandi, S. Ng, L. C. Liddell, D. M. Gentry, S. R. Santa Maria.  “Fluidic-Based Instruments for Space Biology Research in CubeSats.”  (2022)  Frontiers in Space Technologies, 3.  doi:10.3389/frspt.2022.853980 
  • M. Padgen, L. Liddell, S. Bhardwaj, D. Gentry, D. Marina, M. Parra, T. Boone, M. Tan, L. Ellingson, A. Rademacher, J. Benton, A. Schooley, A. Mousavi, C. Friedericks, R. Hanel, A. Ricco, S. Bhattacharya, S. Santa Maria.  “BioSentinel: A Biofluidic Nanosatellite Monitoring Microbial Growth and Activity in Deep Space.”  (2023) Astrobiology,  23(6):637-647. doi:10.1089/ast.2020.2305 
  • S. S. Limaye, K. H. Baines, M. A. Bullock, C. A. Cockell, J. A. Cutts, D. M. Gentry, D. H. Grinspoon, J. W. Head, K.-L. Jessup, V. Kompanichenko, Y. J. Lee, R. Mathies, T. Milojevic, R. Mogul, R. A. Pertzborn, L. Rothschild, S. Sasaki, D. Schulze-Makuch, D. J. Smith, M. J. Way.  “Venus, an Astrobiology Target.”  (2021) Astrobiology, 21(10):1163-1185.  doi:10.1089/ast.2020.2268 
  • A. Kanapskyte, E. M. Hawkins, L. C. Liddell, S. R. Bhardwaj, D. Gentry, and  S. R. Santa Maria. “Space Biology Research & Biosensor Technologies: Past, Present, and Future.” (2021) Biosensors, 11(38).  doi:10.3390/bios11020038 
  • N. R. Izenberg, D. M. Gentry, D. J. Smith, M. S. Gilmore, D. Grinspoon, M. A. Bullock, P. J. Boston, G. P. Słowik.  “The Venus Life Equation.”  (2021) Astrobiology, 21(10):1305-1315.  doi:10.1089/ast.2020.2326 
  • E. Rader, A. Simpson, E. Amador, S. Sutton, G. Tan, J. Fraser, S. Holtzen, M. Cable, T. Cullen, D. C. Cullen, Z. Duca, D. Gentry, G. Murukesan, V. Rennie, A. Stevens, W. Geppert, A. Stockton.  “Preferably Plinian and Pumaceous: Implications of microbial activity in modern volcanic deposits at Askja volcano, Iceland, and implications for Mars exploration.” (2020) ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, 4(9):1500-14.  doi:10.1021/acsearthspacechem.0c00015 
  • D. M. Gentry}, E. S. Amador, M. Cable, N. Chaudry, T. Cullen, G. Murukesan, E. Schwieterman, A. Stevens, A. Stockton, G. Tan, C. Yin, D. Cullen, W. Geppert.  “Correlations between life-detection techniques and implications for sampling site selection in planetary analogue missions.”  (2017) Astrobiology, 17(10):1009-1021.  doi:10.1089/ast.2016.1575 
  • T.-A. Suer, S. Padovan, M. Cable, J Cumbers, D. Gentry, T. Harrison, S. Naidu, C. Parker, R. W. K. Potter, S. Shkolyar, J. Szalay, H. Trammel, J. Reimuller, C. Walker, J. Whitten, C. J. Budney, L. L. Lowes.  “FIRE — Flyby of Io with Repeat Encounters: A Conceptual Design for a New Frontiers Mission to Io.”  (2017) Advances in Space Research, 60:1080-1100.  doi:/10.1016/j.asr.2017.05.019 
  • E. S. Amador, M. L. Cable, N. Chaudry, T. Cullen, D. Gentry, G. Murukesan, E. W. Schwieterman, A. H. Stevens, A. M. Stockton, C. Yin, D. C. Cullen, and W. Geppert. “Synchronous in-field application of life-detection techniques in planetary analog missions.” (2015) Planetary and Space Science, 106:1-10.  doi:10.1016/j.pss.2014.11.006 
  • J. S. Hart, G. Niemeyer, P. Shull, D. Gentry, S. Roderick, D. Akin. “Wave-Variable Based Force Feedback for a Space-Qualified Telerobot.”  Dynamic Systems & Control Conference 2008, Ann Arbor, USA. doi:10.1115/DSCC2008-2144 
  • P. Mitra, D. Gentry, G. Niemeyer. “User Perception and Preference in Model Mediated Telemanipulation.” World Haptics Conference 2007, Tsukuba, Japan.  doi:10.1109/WHC.2007.122