Christina Marie Birch (born November 17, 1986) is an American professional racing cyclist and NASA astronaut candidate.
Christina Birch | |
|---|---|
.jpg) NASA portrait, 2021 | |
| Born | Christina Marie Birch November 17, 1986 Mesa, Arizona, U.S. |
| Education | University of Arizona (BS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS, PhD) |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
| Selection | NASA Group 23 (2021) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biological engineering |
| Thesis | Identification of Malaria Parasite-Infected Red Blood Cell Aptamers by Inertial Microfluidics SELEX (2015) |
| Doctoral advisor | Jacquin Niles |
Early life and career edit
Birch grew up in Gilbert, Arizona, and graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, biochemistry, and molecular biophysics. Birch began cycling with the MIT cycling team while working on her PhD. While at MIT she won the 2014 USA Cycling collegiate cyclocross division two national championship. Birch also represented the JAM Fund cyclocross team from 2011-2015.[1]
After earning a doctorate in biological engineering from MIT in 2015, Birch moved to Southern California to pursue track cycling full time. She taught bioengineering at the University of California, Riverside, and scientific writing and communication at the California Institute of Technology. On the track, Birch has represented the US at multiple Pan American Championships, World Cups, and World Championships. She competed at the 2018 and 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, and the 2019 Pan American Games.
Birch was named to the US track cycling 2020 Olympics long team for the USA in June 2020.[2]
Astronaut candidacy edit
On December 6, 2021, Birch was formally announced as a NASA astronaut candidate with NASA Astronaut Group 23.[3]
Major results edit
- 2014
- National Cyclocross Championships
- 1st
Collegiate Division Two[4]
- 1st
- 2015
- National Track Championships
- 2nd
Madison
- 2nd
- 2016
- National Track Championships
- 1st Individual pursuit
- 2nd Madison
- 2nd Points race
- 1st
- 2017
- National Track Championships
- 1st Individual pursuit
- 1st Team pursuit
- 2nd Madison
- 2nd Points race
- 1st
- 2018
- Pan American Track Championships
- 1st
Team pursuit - 2nd Madison
- 1st
- National Track Championships
- 1st Team pursuit
- 1st Madison
- 2nd Points race
- 3rd
Omnium
- 1st
- 2019
- Pan American Track Championships
- 2nd
Team pursuit
- 2nd
- National Track Championships
- 2nd Madison
- 3rd Points race
- 2nd Omnium
- 2nd
Personal life edit
She is a partner of a racing cyclist Ashton Lambie.[5]
References edit
- ^ "Christina Birch's Race History at crossresults.com". www.crossresults.com.
- ^ "Olympic Long Team Announced for Mountain Bike, Road, &…". USA Cycling.
- ^ Margetta, Robert (December 6, 2021). "NASA Selects New Astronaut Recruits to Train for Future Missions". NASA.
- ^ "The Official Website - USA Cycling". legacy.usacycling.org.
- ^ "This pro track cyclist is going to be an astronaut". CyclingTips. December 7, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2022.