Richard J. Barker, PhD
Plant systems biologist, biophysical instrumentation developer, and computational researcher specializing in photosynthetic boundary-layer transport, primary carbon allocation, organelle stress signaling, and biological digital twins.
- Senior Scientist & Science Co-Lead, NASA Lunar LEAF (Purdue University)
- Chair, NASA GeneLab Plant Analysis Working Group (100+ international members)
- Co-Founder, CoSE Benefit Corp & AstroBotany.com (3,000+ classrooms worldwide)
- Former Scientist & Postdoc, Department of Botany & Genetics, UW–Madison (11 years)
Project Hubs
CoSE Cloud Hub
An open ecosystem of space-biology and astrobotany projects — spaceflight omics, plant biology, interactive web tools and education.
AstroBotany
Growing and understanding plants in space — spaceflight transcriptomics, radiation and tropism biology, crop experiments, and hands-on classroom astrobotany.
Deep Space Agriculture
Sustaining crops and crew on long-duration missions — leaf gas transport under altered gravity, radiation and stress-response decoding, crop physiology, and astronaut-health analytics.
Astronaut Health
Sustaining human crew on long-duration missions: muscle atrophy transcriptomics, oncogenic risk assessment, and plant-based nutritional countermeasures.
CoSE Academy Portal
Space Exploration Modeling & Research Portal — course modules and serious games, with an educational impact assessment.
Select Your Perspective
Academic & Research CV
A rigorous, comprehensive dossier tailored for faculty search committees, academic leadership, and grant agencies.
- 34+ peer-reviewed papers & standardized pipelines
- ~$2,000,000 competitive extramural funding table
- NASA GeneLab AWG leadership & NSF panel service
- Undergraduate mentoring award & pedagogical leadership
- Interactive BibTeX citation copy & downloadable PDF
General & Public Portfolio
A narrative-driven overview of our mission: growing plants and fungi in extreme environments to solve challenges on Earth and in space.
- Plain-language summaries of flagship discoveries
- 3,000+ classrooms citizen science impact
- Mycoponics: growing fungal biomaterials with liquid feeds
- Big Ten Network LiveBIG national TV feature
- Four practical ways we can collaborate
Impact by the Numbers
Core Research & Technical Pillars
Spaceflight Biology & Controlled Environment Ag
Decoding how plants adapt to microgravity, cosmic radiation, and altered gas boundary layers on the International Space Station and future lunar habitats.
AI, Foundation Models & Biological Digital Twins
Developing representation learning, foundation model toolkits (NASA-IBM LFM), and FAIR multi-omics discovery engines (TOAST, GLARE, Rad-Bio-App).
Fungal Biomanufacturing & Mycoponics
Engineering solid-state mycelial growth matrices, biophysical nutrient delivery, and circular biomaterials for space exploration and terrestrial sustainability.
Open Instrumentation, Robotics & Phenotyping
Pioneering low-cost, open-source automated imaging platforms, robotic seed sowing devices (ABCD, Vacuum Manifold), and computer vision pipelines.
Open Science, Mentorship & Public Impact
Transforming science communication through classroom citizen science kits, interactive simulators, high school bioinformatics curricula, and public outreach.