Dorit Donoviel

As Executive Director for the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH), Dorit Donoviel, Ph.D., leads a $0.25B NASA-funded innovation research and development program that finds, funds, and facilitates disruptive human health and performance solutions for astronauts traveling in deep space. She leads both domestic and international research programs that bridge academic, industry, and government resources to deliver fast and cost-effective tangible results. Under her leadership, TRISH established the first commercial spaceflight human research program and database, collecting biomedical data and biological samples from private individuals exploring space into a shared repository to be used by the research community. She has been successful in enrolling multiple private spaceflight providers in this endeavor, paving the way for collaborations that will benefit the entire burgeoning commercial spaceflight sector as well as government-led space agencies. Dr. Donoviel is the recipient of multiple honors from NASA and of the Pioneer Award from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. Dr. Donoviel has authored scientific articles in academic journals as well as the popular press. She speaks about space health concerns and innovative approaches to investing in science and medicine at domestic and international conferences. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology and the Center for Space Medicine and a faculty Senator at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) where she lectures to, and mentors graduate and medical students. Before joining BCM, she led metabolism drug discovery programs at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals for 8 years.