Tyler Volk field of work life
NASA advanced life support
Working for NASA on futuristic space projects, Volk built math models for the cycling of elements in what were called "closed ecological life support systems" (CELSS). From 1986-1998, he was active in this research subfield of advanced life support, helping NASA plan the systems that might someday keep astronauts alive on the Moon and Mars. With colleague John Rummel, he developed some of the first computer models to connect the flows and chemical transformations of crop production, human metabolism, and waste processing. Volk then turned attention to the modeling of crop growth and development for enhanced productivity, collaborating with experimentalists at Utah State University and at NASA centers in Florida, Texas, and California, in particular publishing with crop physiologists Bruce Bugbee of Utah State University and Raymond Wheeler of Kennedy Space Center, as well as with his Ph.D. students Francesco Tubiello and James Cavazonni.
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