Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul is a plant molecular biologist; she is a Research Professor at the University of Florida and the Director of UF’s Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR). She has been active in the spaceflight research community for over 25 years, and has served that community as the President of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research, as a member of the ISS Standing Review Board, on NASA’s GeneLab Science Council, and on the Suborbital Applications Research Group (SARG) advisory board for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. She is currently a member of the National Academies Committee on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space (CBPSS). Paul has launched 12 orbital experiments to study how plants respond to the spaceflight environment, taken her science to extreme terrestrial environments as planetary analogs (Arctic and Antarctica), and worked with true lunar regolith from the Apollo era to evaluate plant molecular responses to that novel environment. She also uses suborbital launch vehicles to explore the effect of the transition to space on the molecular processes of plants. Paul is a recipient of the NASA Medal of Honor for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR). Paul’s fundamental belief is that humans are explorers, and when we leave Earth’s orbit, plants will help us make the journey.