MDRS 2008
CapCom Bios

Dennis Creamer Science Editor and CapCom	Dennis Creamer is a veteran of MDRS Crews 25 and 42, and was also on the MDRS Mod 3 refit crew. He attended the University of South Florida, and Florida State University, and is a retired biologist, with about 30 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, mostly in the Ecological Services Branch. He has been on Mission Support for several years.
	Geoffrey Delage is a computer engineer whose full time work includes writing low level software for environmental control systems. His interests include Astrobiology, Human Space Flight (requirements and challenges involved in day to day life in space), Space Architecture (how to design habitats for space stations and in space vehicles such as those needed to journey to Mars), Earth to LEO transportation (how to build a system that cheaply, reliably and safely can transport people and goods to low earth orbit for transfer to a space station or space vehicle, while being environmentally benign) and Celestial Physics (the study of extra solar objects such as Pulsars, Quasars, Black Holes and Neutron Stars). He is the founder of the University of New Brunswick Space Society, is an alumni member of the Ottawa Board of Education Space Simulation, participated in an exchange with a Space Simulation in South Carolina in 1999, and has attended the US Advanced Space Academy. This is his first year on Mission Support.
Julie A. Schmiedlin Edwards Mission Support Director	Julie Edwards is a retired laboratory researcher from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, MI. Her interests include Martian Astrobiology (the search for life on Mars), Space Architecture (laboratory design for a Mars habitat or pressurized rover), and CELSS and life support (greenhouse structure and function). Julie is a founding member of the Mars Society, Mars Society Chapter Contact for the state of Michigan, and secretary of the Michigan Mars Society chapter.
Tahir Merali	Tahir Merali is in the final year of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto (U of T) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Serving his first MDRS and FMARS season as Mission Support, Tahir's passion for space exploration is quite evident in the community in Canada and abroad. He attended the International Space School in Houston, Texas in cooperation with NASA's Johnson Space Center (2002) and has since returned as a team mentor (2007). He is Executive Director of the International Space School Alumni Association (ISSA) as well as past President and executive of the U of T Astronomy and Space Exploration Society (ASX) (2005-2007). He is also a current member of the Mars Society of Canada and the Canadian Space Society. Tahir plans to pursue further space related studies at the International Space University, and attain an MBA and his pilot's license en route to reaching his goal to become an astronaut. His interests include traveling, playing hockey and astronomy.
Lavina Parwani	Lavina Parwani often has the tendency to stretch herself too thin, accepting everything that comes her way with the simple statement, "I would love to be a part of this!" This determination of hers to not shut the door in the face of opportunities has resulted in her being a part of several projects: President of PhilSEDS, the Solar Car project, SEDSat-2 and training as CapCom for the MDRS simulation team. She somehow (with precarious balance) manages to juggle these with her academics and a social life, which has been non-existent for some time. In her free time, when she has any, she enjoys talking to her friends in the US and Europe, role-playing and watching such awesome TV shows as Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and Firefly. As a person, she is determined (some would say stubborn), passionate, and impetuous.
Catherine Walker	Catherine Walker is enjoying her first season as part of MDRS Mission Support. Hailing from New England (USA), Catherine started her obsession with space upon seeing pictures of Neptune in National Geographic Magazine at the age of 5. Hoping to travel there one day, she attended Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and received a degree in Astrophysics and Planetary Geology. Being involved in space-related research is high on her priority list, so in addition to the MDRS Mission Support, she is an alumni of the NASA Academy, and also worked on NASA's STEREO satellites, the joint NASA/ESA Cluster mission, and at Kennedy Space Center's Space Life Sciences lab. She currently works at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the Optics Branch, and plans to begin her PhD in Space Sciences at the University of Michigan in the Fall of 2008. While not preparing to be an astronaut, Catherine enjoys hobbies like skiing and skydiving.
Artemis Westenberg	Artemis Westenberg has an M.A. in History, Classical Studies, International Relations, Islam, Leyden University. General Management, Dutch Entrepreneurial Society. Business Administration, Rotterdam School of Management. At present Business Manager Welfare Foundation Rotterdam; Ambassador Dutch Space Industries; financial advisor Dutch National Space Association; lecturer. Nationally decorated feminist, who has been part of the feminist movement since her teenage years. Famous for her lawsuits against the government that changed laws and so the lives of the female population of the Netherlands. Trained as manager in many fields (e.g. financial, project, logistics, PR), her work experience is diverse: working for various multinational corporations as PR manager and Business Administration manager; president of the Rotterdam Women's Council, the largest pressure group organisation of the Netherlands; lobbyist for many very diverse projects. CapCom MDRS / FMARS Artemis has served on 5 MDRS crews. She has been a board member of the Mars Society Netherlands from the very first, and has organised many Mars Society gatherings and conferences in the Netherlands, noteworthy: the EMC2 (second European Mars Society Convention), and is in the process of organising the EMC7. She is the 'All Mars Trekking dventure' travel agency for any Mars enthusiast in the Netherlands, organising their trips around Europe and the USA to Mars events. She has filled a Wiki with her experiences at the MDRS and the things she learned as CapCom from countless crews: http://hablife.elwiki.com This as part of her job as one of the Euro-MARS project managers. She was involved from the start with the design of this European Mars Analogue Research Station and scouted the site at Krafla in Iceland in 2002. Artemis has travelled this planet from her birth with her father, a shipmaster of seagoing vessels, which instilled a wanderlust in her blood. She feels at home anywhere in this world and has lived for a short time in many of its capitals. She is an avid reader of magazines (Science, Nature, New Scientist), and _ if she can find the time_ SF, mysteries and historical novels. She collects children books and books on subjects like Egyptology, Archeology, Mars, Judaism and had managed to completely cover her walls with book cases. Artemis likes to built things with her own hands after a thorough design process as is witnessed by her own home. She likes to cook and knows how to adapt any recipe to make it kosher. In her youth she was a dedicated sportswoman in gymnastics and later water polo and swimming. She lives her life in a suburb of Rotterdam, for which seaport she is the proverbial example of a foreigner with a little homesickness in her heart.
Gerry Williams	Gerry Williams is a San Diego CA-based corporate/industrial filmmaker with 16 feature films to his credit as Director of Photography. He has a B.S. in Physics (nuclear engineering) and has filmed inside the General Atomics DIII-D Tokamak fusion reactor. Williams has been doing MDRS Mission Support since MDRS Crew 1b in 2002, and spent three days filming the adventures of MDRS Crew 2 (footage of which appeared on the History Channel's "The Universe: Colonizing Space"). He has also participated in two off-season maintenance missions to the MDRS Habitat in 2003 and 2004. He would love to participate on a crew. Williams is a human spaceflight advocate and a founding member of The Mars Society - San Diego. He publishes the MarsMovieGuide.com and hosts a monthly Mars Movie Night.