[Ed. note – This post was intended to be presented in the format of a Q-and-A, but a mysterious and still unconfirmed electromagnetic pulse, issuing from some dark corner of the MIT campus, rendered the recording function of the author’s iPhone useless during his time with Dr. Kate Rubins. Nevertheless, the show must and will go on…]

Dr. Rubins is a Fellow at the Whitehead and leader of a team of scientists working on, among other things poxvirus biology. My purpose in visiting with her was to gather more information regarding her selection for this year’s NASA astronaut class. It is not everyday that a molecular biologist is chosen to join the ranks of the nation’s best and brightest space-farers.

It turns out there was not a lot that Rubins could say about NASA’s interview and selection process, since she was forced at gun point asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Even so, the broad stroke is that there were multiple rounds of interviews and assorted grillings culminating with an appearance before what I imagine to be something like the Jedi Council. This collection of elders numbers somewhere between 10 and 20 individuals, all of whom were certainly high power types bent on extracting the truth from tasked with properly vetting each candidate that sat before them. I was not expecting to be faced with a shroud of secrecy that conjures images of the 1950s CIA. Undaunted, I pressed on. Asked how she heard about this opportunity, Rubins replied that a colleague saw a posting on USAjobs.gov and immediately thought of Rubins’s long and abiding interest in space. As someone who has attempted (pretty unsuccessfully) to navigate the morass that is the Federal jobs portal, I was stunned and confused that this was one of the ways that NASA went about the recruitment process. In light of their seeming clandestine behavior, I think an uninvited knock on the door in the dead of night would be far more appropriate.

Rubins’s training to become an astronaut starts a little more than a month from now in mid-August. Over the next two years, Rubins will train to be a mission specialist who will ultimately endure long-duration flight aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The training includes, according to NASA’s webpage “scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training.” In the very brief interim between now and the start of Adult Space Camp her vigorous, intense training, she must not only prepare herself for the challenges ahead but also find homes for the projects in her lab – and the people that work on them.

Asked about the mood in the lab on hearing the news that Rubins was closing shop for a space shot, she said that her colleagues were extraordinarily excited for and supportive of her. Rubins also explained that, because of the nature of her extensive collaborations both within and without the Whitehead, that all of her charges would not be wanting for gainful employment. Equally important, years and much passion and dedication have been accorded to these various projects and the fact that they will continue is crucial, she said.

But what are Dr. Rubins’s wildest dreams regarding the future of space exploration? She was measured in her reply. She believes the ISS will create a new kind of science that exemplifies the dream of collaboration across borders, disciplines and cultures. In fact, Dr. Rubins views the nature of the ISS to be better than a University. That is, though everyone may possess starkly different forms of expertise, the focus on the task at hand generates a sense of being on the same team and promotes progress as a result. [Ed. note to university administrators: If you are having issues with negative competition between members of your faculty, it may be even more satisfying than you think to send them into orbit.]

Addtionally, she sees space biology (and presumably astrobiology) as a legitimate career choice for the coming generations as we extend our reach further into space and finally make use of the ISS. Contrary to conventional presumptions, Rubins is not immediately interested in expanding her work with viruses into the sphere of space. Her goals are fixed instead on the important step of showing that biology can be done in orbit. This includes an interest in instrumentation and microfluidics. That is, how do experiments such as electrophoresis and other modes of molecular biology behave in microgravity? These are the kinds of questions that must be answered if biological experiments are to be successfully carried out in orbit and beyond. In the final analysis, it is clear that Dr. Rubins is at the vanguard of what science will be in the 21st Century.