Diana C. Ly

Affiliation: NASA Ames Research Center (ARC)

Division: Earth Science Division (SG)

Email: diana.c.ly@nasa.gov

Personal Biography

Diana C. Ly  is the Earth Science Deputy Chief and the Transform to Open Science (TOPS) Open Science 101 Project Manager. From 2017 to 2022, she served as the Deputy Portfolio Manager of the Space Biology portfolio at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. She was responsible for managing the cost, technical, schedule and risk of a portfolio that consisted of over 70 active grants and payload development and operations for space biology experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) and on other free-flyer platforms. Before joining NASA as a civil servant in 2017, she spent twelve years as a contractor performing a variety of science roles for the Nanosat Program and Shuttle payloads and operations roles for ISS payloads. Her passion and dedication to teamwork, innovation, and problem solving have earned her multiple awards, including the prestigious Space Flight Awareness Silver Snoopy award. 

Diana has a BA in Psychology with minors in Biology and Chemistry from the University of San Francisco and an MBA with an emphasis on Leading Teams and Organizations and Managing Innovation and Technology from the University of Santa Clara. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, learning about different cultures and foods, and spending time with family. 

Education

Master of Business Administration, Santa Clara University 

Bachelor of Arts, University of San Francisco 

Awards & Others

Space Flight Awareness Award (2023) 

Space Flight Awareness Team Award (2014) 

Silver Snoopy Award (2014) 

Select Publications

Barrila, J., Sarker, S. F., Hansmeier, N., Yang, S., Buss, K., Briones, N., Park, J., Davis, R. R., Forsyth, R. J., Ott, C. M., Sato, K., Kosnik, C., Yang, A., Shimoda, C., Rayl, N., Ly, D., Landenberger, A., Wilson, S. D., Yamazaki, N., Steel, J., … Nickerson, C. A. (2021). Evaluating the effect of spaceflight on the host-pathogen interaction between human intestinal epithelial cells and Salmonella Typhimurium. NPJ microgravity, 7(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-021-00136-w 

P Ehrenfreund, AJ Ricco, D Squires, C Kitts, E Agasid, N Bramall, K Bryson, J Chittenden, C Conley, A Cook, R Mancinelli, A Mattioda, W Nicholson, R Quinn, O Santos, G Tahu, M Voytek, C Beasley, L Bica, M Diaz-Aguado, C Friedericks, M Henschke, D Landis, E Luzzi, D Ly, N Mai, G Minelli, M McIntyre, M Neumann, M Parra, M Piccini, R Rasay, R Ricks, A Schooley, E Stackpole, L Timucin, B Yost, A Young (2014). The O/OREOS Mission–Astrobiology in Low Earth Orbit. Acta Astro, 93, 501-08. 

Nicholson, W. L., Ricco, A. J., Agasid, E., Beasley, C., Diaz-Aguado, M., Ehrenfreund, P., Friedericks, C., Ghassemieh, S., Henschke, M., Hines, J. W., Kitts, C., Luzzi, E., Ly, D., Mai, N., Mancinelli, R., McIntyre, M., Minelli, G., Neumann, M., Parra, M., Piccini, M., … Young, A. (2011). The O/OREOS mission: first science data from the Space Environment Survivability of Living Organisms (SESLO) payload. Astrobiology, 11(10), 951–958. https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2011.0714 

Ly, D., Yu, D., Girten, B. and Cohen, J. (2005). Testing of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Morphological Fixatives and Fixed Samples Stored at Ambient Temperature. Gravitational and Space Biology Bulletin, 18(2), 105-106.