NASA Astronaut Christina Birch

Chris (Christina) Birch was selected by NASA to join the 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class and reported for duty in January 2022. The Arizona native graduated from the University of Arizona, Tucson, with degrees in mathematics and biochemistry and molecular biophysics. After earning a doctorate in biological engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, she taught bioengineering at the University of California, Riverside, and scientific writing and communication at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. She subsequently left academia to become a decorated track cyclist on the U.S. National Team.