Dr. Marta Cortesão

Awards and Honors

• ESA Astronaut Trainer 2023 at the European Space Agency (ESA) – Astrobiology Lecture and Space Microbiology practical lesson.
  
  
• Tom K. Scott Award by the American Society of Gravitation and Space Research (ASGSR) 2020. The award recognizes students with excellent academic and/or professional achievements, and an outstanding potential for success and interest in the field of gravitational and space research. https://asgsr.org/awards/

• Named “Person of University of Porto” 2018 – https://noticias.up.pt/pessoas-da-up/marta-cortesao/
  
• Launching Space Biology Workshop (LSB) funded by Joachim Herz Foundation (2022) (awarded 50 000 €)
  
• Add-On Fellowship, Joachim Herz Foundation (2021) (12 500 €)
  
• TV Appearence February 2019 –  “Hora dos Portugueses” by RTP 1, Portuguese National Television -https://www.rtp.pt/play/p6135/e423642/hora-dos-portugueses-diario
  
• Women in Aerospace Europe (WIA-E) semester grant 2018 (1 500 €)

Science Communication and Outreach

• Space Microbes Coloring Book – freely available for you to print, in English and Portuguese 🙂

• Dia Internacional das Mulheres e Raparigas na Ciência IA, PP-CCV and
  PLOAD – 2025 https://divulgacao.iastro.pt/pt/evento/astro-fem-25/
  
• Cortesao, M., Coelho, L. (2021) Virtual workshop Astrobiology and Space Microbiology at ENEB Portugal
  
• Self-organized Science Outreach Week in Portuguese Schools to students ages 6-18 “What is Astrobiology and how do astronauts live on the ISS” January 2020, Porto, Portugal. At: Middle-school Paranhos; Middle and High-school Colégio Júlio Dinis;
  – Middle-school São Lourenço; High-school Rodrigues de Freitas; High-school Aurélia de Sousa; Primary school CCG.
  
• EUROmicroMOOC twitter course 2018 – An initiative from FEMS and the Spanish society for microbiology. The lesson can be found online here.

• TEDx Speaker February 2017 – “Astrobiology: the search for life beyond Earth” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-N0_kMvtFU

Events I organized

• EANA 2025 LOC (Local Organizing Commitee) of the European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA) 25th Conference. Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon Portugal. Also did the logo 😉 http://www.eana-net.eu/index.php?page=conferences/EANA2025/index
  
• Chair/Lead “Launching Space Biology Workshop” 2023 funded by the Joachim Herz Foundation (JHS), in Boulder, Colorado (USA). Organized between German Aerospace Center and Bioserve Space Technologies and UC Boulder. Event website
  
• Chair/Lead of EANA “Space Factor” students contest 2019-2023 Every year, the European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA) holds the “Space Factor” students contest, as part of the international conference, as an opportunity for graduate students to present their research to the European Astrobiology community, and to develop their own astrobiology network.  

• EANA 2021 LOC (Local Organizing Commitee) of the European Astrobiology Network Association (EANA) Conference – Virtual
  
• Chair/Lead of Astrobiology students workshop May 2019 3-day workshop “AbGradE 101: where early career Astrobiologists meet” in Prague, Czech Republic. Event website.
  
• Chair/Lead of EU-Symposium on Education 28^th June 2014 – 15^st July 2014 Topics “Virtual Internships” and “Entrepreneurship” Gdansk, Poland. In the scope of the PROVIP Thematic Network of the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme. Report

Seminars I gave

• Virtual Seminar on “Astrobiology” for the Polish Society for Astrobiology. 2023
  
• Invited Speaker on “Space Microbiology and Astrobiology” Virtual Seminar for
  Universidad Vale de Guatemala “Space Science & Engineering Seminar”. 2021
  
• Invited Speaker at Space (Bio)Science: the final frontier. Women in Engineering International Leadership Summit (WIE-ILS). 26 July 2019, Porto, Portugal

• Invited Speaker at XO Seminar at NASA Ames: Fungi: the final frontier – space mycology and why it matters 2019, 1 July 2019, USA

• Invited Speaker at the UK Centre for Astrobiology, Edinburgh, UK. “Fungi in Space: implications for astronaut health and planetary protection” March 2019

• Invited Speaker at the Planetary Exploration Research Center (PERC). “Fungal adaptation to space conditions“January 2019, Chiba, Japan

I also design logos and patches for science projects – check them here!