A. Chris Maese

A. Chris Maese has been the Deputy Division Chief for the Space Biosciences Division (SC) since March 2015. As of February 2021, he is now acting Associate Director for Management Operations. This organization has a research space biology component, an engineering component involved in developing life support systems, and a payloads component with responsibility for managing ISS animal payloads. Concurrently, he is also the Ames Research Center (ARC) Liaison to the Human Research Program (HRP) at Johnson Space Center. He has responsibility for managing the ARC staff matrixed to support the various elements within this Program. He was assigned in October 2009. Maese was on detail to two different organizations. He split his time between Information Technology Projects and as an Experiment Support Manager for the VO2max experiment performed on ISS. From November 2006 through August 2008, he served as Deputy Science Project Manager for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Program. The SOFIA Program is a NASA mission, in collaboration with the German Space Agency, to conduct scientific investigations utilizing a 2.5 meter (8 foot) diameter infrared telescope mounted in a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft.

Previous to this assignment, Maese was the Deputy of Operations for the Space Station Biological Research Project and concurrently, he had overall responsibility for the integration of operations for payload activities within the Life Sciences Division (SL). In this capacity, he was involved in the design and development of space station hardware as well as the integration and utilization of this hardware onboard station.

Maese has been with Ames since 1980. His association with NASA began when he was a graduate student at San Jose State University. He was awarded a NASA/San Jose State University grant to study bone histomorphometry. While doing this research, he also taught human physiology at San Jose State University and for the West Valley-Mission Community College District. In 1988 he joined Lockheed Engineering and Sciences Company as a Crew Training Coordinator for the Spacelab Life Sciences-1, International Microgravity Laboratory-1, and Spacelab-Japan missions. In 1989, Maese was hired as the NASA ARC Crew Training Manager for all Fundamental Biology, both plant and animal, payloads developed by the Space Life Sciences Payloads Office.

In 1992, Maese was also assigned to the position of Ames Payload Manager for the International Microgravity Laboratory-2 mission. In 1994, he was assigned to the position of Ames Neurolab Payload Manager. He was responsible for integrating the hardware and science supporting 15 investigations, involving U.S. and international investigators, conducted on this life sciences mission dedicated to the study of neurobiology and launched in April 1998. In addition to his involvement in the dedicated life sciences Spacelab missions, he was responsible for crew training and operations on payloads developed for Spacelab middeck and SPACEHAB. Maese has received numerous awards for his involvement with the Life Sciences Flight Experiments Program and was awarded the Silver Snoopy Award by the Astronaut Office in appreciation for his work to ensure mission success in the Space Transportation System. In 2012, he was recognized for outstanding leadership in developing systems and performing research and enabling longer human missions in space and was awarded NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal.

Maese received a B.S. in biology from Santa Clara University, and an M.A. in biology, emphasis in physiology, from San Jose State University.