Two UF Student Researchers Propel Space Neuroscience Forward With NASA Internships

Jordan Rodriguez and Sophia Larralde explore the effects of microgravity on the brain and motor control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Conducting high-level research on how space affects the brain and body, two UF students are making their mark on the study of microgravity and motor control.

As summer interns at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Jordan Rodriguez and Sophia Larralde recently helped advance scientists’ understanding of the environmental impacts of space on astronauts. And their once-in-a-lifetime, hands-on experience as undergraduates brought them much closer to achieving their professional goals.

Larralde has studied with Rachael Seidler, Ph.D. (a professor in the College of Health & Human Performance’s Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology and the deputy director of the UF Astraeus Space Institute) in the Neuromotor Behavior Lab, investigating the effects of aging and microgravity on brain function and motor control. Seidler is renowned for her research in the neural control of movement in health and disease, and she collaborates with scientists at NASA to better understand how the effects of space can impact an astronaut’s body and brain.

Seidler’s research has inspired both Larralde and Rodriguez, a first-generation college graduate from the Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology who first took her class at UF on motor learning.

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