My Office: Richard Barker

What’s your job now and can you describe your office?

Historically my astrobotany co-laboratory office at UW-Madison is shared with 2 post docs, 1 graduate student, 3 undergraduates, 1 flight proven rocket, 1 plant photography robot named awesome and a giant “white board table” in the centre of the room covered in experimental designs and mind maps!

When I worked at NASA Ames Research Center as a programmer as part of the NASA GeneLab data processing team my office became virtual, the benefit of this was it allowed me to connect with space plant enthusiasts around the world as the Chair the NASA GeneLab Plant Analysis Working Group, the draw back of this is that i wasn’t around as many plants and people; to be honest it felt a bit isolated, but perhaps not as isolated as the next explorers that go to the moon or the first that venture to Mars?

Now that i’ve moved to Purdue to become a member of the Lunar LEAF science definition team I have a new lab, a new set of research challenges and some new experimental protocols to invent to help us better understand the stressors associated with living on the lunar surface.

What was your one career-defining moment or decision?

When my PhD committee member Professor Bennet (from UoN) suggested that I turn down the ‘stable teaching job’ in my home town to pursue a research career in the USA. It was a big scary moment, play it safe near my loved ones, or take the other road to the new world! I knew i didn’t have a clear path back, I literally left without enough cash for my return flight.

However, as a result, so many dreams came true, you know silly academic wanting a plant photography robot, want a team to help make a hyperspectral scanning robot, access to RNAseq data and the chance to hitchhike some experiments in the Belly of the Dragon on the back of the Falcon 9 on a return trip the International Space Station.

What would you say are the key characteristics of someone who does your job?

A love of plants, grit and a growth mindset. Passion and the ability to pivot are essential in this field, as technology is rapidly evolving, and you have to be ready to adapt your perspective based on new data. Moreover, it's crucial to believe that you can transform data into useful insights that create real change. You need to be comfortable with both cutting-edge technology and fundamental plant biology.

But most importantly, being collaborative! There are a lot of technical challenges that humanity needs to overcome if we are to create bioregenerative life support systems that function in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), on the lunar surface and on Mars; hence a collaborative mindset is important as it will take more than a village to build a village in any of these extra-terrestrial environments.

How would your colleagues describe you?

Historically fun, wild, energetic, unconventional, innovative, hopefully funny and occasionally insightful or useful. I’ve been told they know I will reliably deliver the woo factor - whatever that means! Probably just referring to old fire juggling days at the “Alternative arts club” at the Sutton Bonington campus.

I hope my friends and teammates know I’ve got their backs and that I’ll find and deliver the most important scientific insights from the data before the deadline is due (which is really important for academic grant cycles but also rocket launch requirements). And always eager to collaborate across departments.

What’s the one thing about your office which you most love and/or hate?

What I love most about my office is the people; I have a random positioning machine (RPM) spinning pretty constantly which is great as every student interacts with it differently each semester. It keeps me on my toes as I’m constantly being exposed to new ways to use the RPM and new perspectives on how to interrogate the data it produces.

The thing I hate most about my office is just that time spent there is time away from my family and I can't really take my sons to work yet as their cuteness will distract my other hard working colleagues.

Is there anything you could not live without in your office?

My plants; I love caring for them, particularly the ones that are easy to care for like succulents or aquatic plants. A lot of my research has focused on stressing plants so it's important to be surrounded by some that are thriving!

What’s been the best moment working in your office?

So many magical moments laughing with friend - but scientifically speaking, probably the first time we had a live stream to watch the astronauts process our samples on the ISS and then followed by the moment when those samples came back to our lab. Coincidently I had the local high school rocket team visiting the lab to prepare some plant samples for their next launch (they flew their plants a mile high the following weekend), when the FedEx truck arrived with the previous cargo there was nearly as much excitement as on the launch day!

It was really refreshing to see a younger generation being inspired to improve their rocketry research program based on what they were learning from our mission to the ISS. Plus, who doesn’t love playing with the spare dry ice?

And the most difficult?

Trying to understand the results that we got from the samples that we received in said FedEx truck. The plants were grown on the ISS in complete darkness, but the RNAseq data said that the samples in spaceflight had received a “highlight” stimulus! It took a long time and a bunch of experiments before we understood why the genetics and statistics were highlighting that genetic response pathway (but that’s a different paper). That or having colleagues become friends and then watching them move away to pursue their next career stage.

Do you have one piece of advice for someone who wants to work in an office like yours?

Practive computer coding earlier. Python, R, Bash - yuck! I went to college because I love plants and wanted to use plant power to make the world more sustainable. Unfortunately, to find the important patterns in big data and make those insights accessible to a large enough audience requires some programming skills. But in recent years advances in AI it's not as hard as it once was. Just remember, the most exciting breakthroughs often happen at the intersection of disciplines so get out of your “silos” and make a new friend during your next interdisciplinary collaboration.

What is your one niche skill you are proud of above all others?

The greatest niche skill I learnt was how to genetically modify plants, I learnt how to hard specific genes to specific tissues in order to make plant organs 10-20% larger or smaller. Essentially my thesis is a road map on how to create now dwarf or enlarged plants using the Genes of the Green Revolution.

But I have to say it was Capoeira skills (There’s a lot to unpack within Capoeira but essentially its a Brazilian cultural manifestation that combines Dance, Martial arts, Music, Songs and cultural tradition created by slaves as attempt to retain a spiritual connection to their homelands while training to be ready to fight for freedom) I learnt in Nottingham’s “Cordao De Ouro” Capoeira group that helped develop the confidence and control I needed to launch me on such an ambitious trajectory. They are a fun group and if you’re in Nottingham I recommend you go play with them as it truly opens the door to a super supportive world wide community of artists.

And finally, how do you take your tea?

In the morning a “Builders black tea”, I don’t mind if you leave the bag in, but i’m going to need a splash of milk. A cup of Earl Grey with a slice of lemon in the afternoon please.

During long train rides I like hot sweet chai, but when exploring new places on hot sunny days I love an iced chai latte.

I think as I grew up learning to code shift, I started drinking coffee since moving stateside. But now I'm going to go brew a cuppa!