Michaela Musilova

Michaela Musilová (born 11 October 1988) is a Slovak astrobiologist. She was the HI-SEAS director from 2018 until 2022. Currently, Musliová is the president and founder of the non-profit XtremeFrontiers. She has commanded more than 30 simulated missions to the Moon and Mars - the most missions led to date.

Biography Musilová was born on 11 October 1988 in Bratislava. Her father is a diplomat and her mother is an archaeologist.

She received her PhD from the University of Bristol specialising in extremophiles with applications to astrobiology, environmental science and glaciology. She graduated from the International Space University's (ISU) Space Studies Program in 2015, where she now holds the position of Global Faculty . Previously, she studied at the University College London, where she received a master's degree in planetary sciences in 2011, studied at California Institute of Technology as an exchange student in 2009, and graduated from the French Lycée Chateaubriand in Rome, Italy in 2007.

Her research as an astrobiologist has been wide-ranging, including stints at the University of London Observatory, the UK Space Agency for the NASA MoonLite project, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA, the Mars Desert Research Station, and the Institute for Food Research in Slovakia. . In cooperation with her team, Musilová's projet combines expeditions to the highest peaks on each of the seven continents with scientific research and educational activites, in collaboration with NASA and other organizations worldwide .

Selected awards Musilová has received multiple prizes and grants, including the Emerging Space Leaders Grant from the International Astronautical Federation (2016) and the Women in Aerospace – Europe Young Professional Award (2016), and she was selected as one of the most promising 30 under 30 by Forbes Slovakia (2015). She was selected to journey to Antarctica with the largest all-female in STEM expedition.

Publications

Musilová is also a published author, with works ranging from scientific publications, to a biography, a fictional sci-fi story, , documentaries and interviews.

Select research publications

Musilova, Michaela, Martyn Tranter, Sarah A. Bennett, Jemma Wadham, and Alexandre M. Anesio. "Stable microbial community composition on the Greenland Ice Sheet." Frontiers in microbiology 6 (2015): 193. Musilova, Michaela, Martyn Tranter, Jonathan L. Bamber, Nozomu Takeuchi, and A. M. Anesio. "Experimental evidence that microbial activity lowers the albedo of glaciers." Geochem. Perspect. Lett 2 (2016): 106-116. Musilova, Michaela, Martyn Tranter, Jemma Wadham, Jon Telling, Andrew Tedstone, and Alexandre M. Anesio. "Microbially driven export of labile organic carbon from the Greenland ice sheet." Nature Geoscience 10, no. 5 (2017): 360-365. Musilova, Michaela, Henk Rogers, Bernard Foing, Nityaporn Sirikan, Annelotte Weert, Sebastian Mulder, Benjamin Pothier, and Joshua Burstein. "EMM IMA HI-SEAS campaign February 2019." In EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019, vol. 2019, pp. EPSC-DPS2019. 2019.

Biography

Musilová co-wrote the book about her life - A Woman from Mars [Žena z Marsu]. , the Smithsonian , and other broadcast journalism.