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2016 Leading Light Award Winner - Risk Taker

Jocelyn DunnJocelyn Dunn, Chief Scientist & Founder of Earthonauts, Purdue University/NASA

In the midst of her doctoral program at Purdue University in Industrial engineering, Jocelyn Dunn pursued the opportunity to participate in a simulated Mars mission for 8 months called HI-SEAS, the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation. Participating in this study had inherent risks, as it tested the adaptability and resilience of an individual in a harsh environment. Jocelyn also took risks in changing the direction of her doctoral research and in leaving behind family and friends for a long period of time.

Despite pragmatic cynicism from some of her closest advisors, she accepted. As a result, she found a way to merge her lifelong interests in astronaut health with her early PhD work in developing data analytics.  Through her many interviews with international news outlets about the program, she also brought positive attention to women in STEM.

Additionally, Jocelyn is currently leading a team for STEM outreach in Gary, Indiana, called Earthonauts. Even though this project has presented inherent risks because of the significant gang violence in the area, she continues to build relationships in the community and lay the groundwork for sustainable STEM outreach in Gary.

Jocelyn serves as a great example of how women positively impact the world through STEM.

Click here to view Jocelyn Dunn’s LinkedIn profile.


Publications and Presentations

Mathematical Physics: modeled universe formation and evolution with solutions to Einstein’s equations:


  • Vuille, Chris, and Jocelyn Dunn. “Exact Plane Symmetric Cosmological Solutions for a Massless Scalar field and Cosmological Constant.” ArXiv General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, 21 Apr. 2009.


Biomechanics: development of a biomaterial for soft tissue regeneration through mechanical analysis, chemical modification, and solid-fluid interactions modeling, and also developed a knee-strengthening rehabilitative device:

  • Nauman, Eric, Darryl Dickerson, and Jocelyn Dunn. PATENT 65507.P1.US, “Compositions and Methods for Repair or Regeneration of Soft Tissue.” No.: US 2013/0123939. Pub. Date: 16 May 2013.
  • Dunn, Jocelyn, Darryl Dickerson, and Eric Nauman. “Tissue Engineering of a Naturally-Derived Scaffold with Adjustable Mechanical Properties, Modified Surface Chemistry, and Interconnected Pores for the Regeneration of Vascularized Tissue.” (2011). Master's Thesis, May 2011, and Manuscript.
  • Breedlove, Evan, Jocelyn Dunn, and Eric Nauman. “Biomechanical Analysis of a Sport-Specific Lower Limb Strengthening Device.” (2010). Human Motion Kinetics Textbook Chapter, ME 577 course.
     

Operations Research and Data Analytics: create data-driven knowledge to aide decision-makers in systems improvement -- novel methods for robust analytics -- generate reliable information from real-world data. In the first stage of my PhD work, I developed novel methods for improving nanoHUB.org simulation community.

  • Dunn, Jocelyn, and Omid Nohadani. “Optimizing a Virtual Community for Nanotechnology Education and Research Collaboration.” Proc. of INFORMS Quality, Statistics, and Reliability, Charlotte, NC, Nov 2011.
  • Dunn, Jocelyn, Gerhard Klimeck, and Omid Nohadani. “Data-Driven Categorization for Maximum Separation and Anomaly Detection.” Proc. of INFORMS Data Mining II, Minneapolis, MN, Oct. 2013.
  • Dunn, Jocelyn, Gerhard Klimeck, and Omid Nohadani. “Deductive Approach to Categorizing User Data from Nanotechnology Simulation Community.” INFORMS Service Science, Manuscript. Apr. 2014.

Human-Integrated Systems Monitoring: For my dissertation, I have designed and implemented human subject research at Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) for both the 8-month and 12-month missions in 2014-2016 timeframe. My research is developing data analytics to analyze human health and stress states with integrative approaches combining diverse domains of data: wearables, biological, and self-report data.  
  • “Health and Stress Monitoring on simulated Mars.” Keynote Presentation at Florida Space Institute of University of Central Florida. Seminar Series, remote presentation during HI-SEAS, March 2015.
  • “Real Stress on Fake Mars” at TEDx Vicenza, Italy. Two weeks after the mission concluded; quick transition from living in a dome with 5 others to being on an international stage at the historic Teatro Olimpico for 500+ audience, and online streaming, June 2015 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C1EB5pJkBE .
  • “Wearables in Space.” Keynote Presentation at Wearable Technologies Conference in Toronto, Sept 2015.
  • “The Dawn or Doom of Space Exploration?” Keynote Presentation at Purdue University. Conference focused on emerging technologies, Sept 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDUN2axT31Y.
  • Dunn, Jocelyn and Gerry McCartney. (in preparation) "Comparing codes of conduct for religious orders and military personnel to provide context for developing behavioral guidelines for human space exploration"
  • "Wearables for Monitoring Behavioral Health in Real-Time" presentation to the Board of Directors and team of researchers at Menninger Clinic, Houston, TX, Oct 2015.
  • Huebner, Erich and Jocelyn Dunn. (in preparation) "A hub-zero platform for downloading, visualizing, and sharing research quality data from commercial wearable devices." Access from wearableshub.org
  • "Health and Stress Monitoring on Simulated Mars" at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, February 2016.
  • Dunn, Jocelyn, Steve Landry, and Kim Binsted. (in preparation) "Empirical evidence of a metric for stress intensity from self-reported values of the speed of onset and the speed of recovery from stress events."
  • "Maintaining biological health through behavioral coping on long-duration simulated Mars mission" at the 3rd Annual Agricultural and Biological Engineering Symposium, Purdue University, February 2016.
  • Dunn, Jocelyn, Prithvi Sulaya, Siyu Liu, Steve Landry, and Kim Binsted. (in preparation) "Longitudinal analysis of wearables data comparing metrics of activity and sleep performance in simulated astronaut crews."
  • Dunn, Jocelyn, Amber Jannasch, Eric Nauman, and Kim Binsted. (in preparation) "Biomarkers of stress and oxidative damage in hair and urine samples of individuals on long-duration simulated Mars missions."
       


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