User:Neuralia/sandbox/bio/jrothman

Joel Rothman is a research biologist, and distinguished Wilcox Family Chair in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose research has centered on genetic studies of embryonic development in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans for over two decades. His interest in space exploration reached particular public attention in 2022 when, alongside other scientists, he suggested that worms and plantigrades could eventually be sent to far distances outside the solar system in miniaturized, relativistic spacecraft, such as contemplated in the NASA Starlight program to expand the reach of known life.