NASA honors BAER Institute scientist and alumna

BAER Institute’s Zara Mirmalek has received a 2021 NASA Ames Honors Award, a peer nominated award that is among Ames’s most prestigious honors. Dr. Mirmalek is a Co-I on the P-STAR funded BASALT and SUBSEA analog research programs (PI, Darlene Lim), a Co-I on the NASA SSERVI RESOURCE program (PI, Jen Heldmann), and the Deputy Lead of Science Operations and  Integration for the NASA VIPER lunar rover mission (Proj. Scientist, Anthony Colaprete).

Her nominees describe Zara as “a deeply thoughtful, humble, and broadly experienced professional, whose presence elevates the rigor and productivity of each project and mission she is a part of.  She is collegial and supportive, and her under-stated disposition belies her many accomplishments and her vast knowledge. She is an incredibly valued member of all of our NASA science and exploration efforts.”

Dr. Mirmalek is a social scientist who conducts qualitative research among work communities, particularly those that include extreme environments. She has conducted ethnographic research among professional workgroups in the domains of space exploration, ocean exploration, and air transportation. She recently published Making Time on Mars (MIT Press, 2020), a book that examines how the daily work of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers was organized across three sites on two planets using local Mars time.

In her role as the Deputy Lead for VIPER Science Operations and Integration, Mirmalek is building work systems for the VIPER science team that will set a  standard for future science support of missions to the Moon and beyond. Zara has been leading the ethnographic work studies towards the development of a science work system that is truly supportive, enhancing, and enabling for VIPER mission scientists.

Zara’s nominators call her contributions “truly unique for a spaceflight mission” and feel that her work has already had a significant positive impact on the development of science operations for the VIPER mission.

Congratulations, Zara!

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Darlene Lim, a BAER Institute alumna and current collaborator of Mirmalek’s, has been awarded SSERVI’s Michael J. Wargo Exploration Science Award, an annual award given to a scientist or engineer who has significantly contributed to the integration of exploration and planetary science throughout their career.

Dr. Lim is currently the Deputy Project Scientist for the NASA VIPER Lunar Rover Mission, and also leads several NASA-funded research programs focused on blending field science with new concepts of operations for human and robotic teams. She is the Principal Investigator of the BASALT, SUBSEA, and Pavilion Lake research programs, Deputy PI for FINESSE, and Science Ops lead for RESOURCE.

Darlene has conducted field research around the world, on land and underwater. She has served on a number of NASA Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group committees and is currently serving on the NOAA Ocean Exploration Advisory Board, and the NASA Network for Ocean Worlds Steering Committee. Her efforts at integrating exploration and planetary science would make Mike Wargo proud.

Congratulations, Darlene!