Ray Wheeler is a plant physiologist and senior scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where he leads the advanced life support research group. This includes controlled environment studies with crops for food and oxygen production, CO2 removal, and wastewater processing. Over the years, Ray has studied crop responses to gravity, CO2, light, atmospheric pressure, and hydroponic cultivation. Ray was co-investigator for several spaceflight experiments, including the first test to demonstrate potato tuber development in space. Ray is the author or co-author of more than 250 scientific research papers and has presented 55 domestic and 30 international invited talks. He has received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific the Achievement Medal, the USDA/ARS B.Y. Morrison Distinguished Lecturer Award, the American Society for Gravitation and Space Research Founder’s Award, the AIAA Jeffries Award for Aerospace Medicine and Life Science Research, and served as the Vice Chair for the Life Sciences Commission of COSPAR, the International Committee on Space Research.