Principal Investigator,
PESTO Payload
Dynamac Corporation
Kennedy Space Center, FL

During the past ten years, Dr. Gary Stutte has worked at Kennedy Space Center in Dynamac's plant Research Group to determine the feasibility of using plants as bioregenerative life support systems for long duration space missions.

Dr. Stutte is the principal investigator for several spaceflight experiments designed to grow plants in microgravity. One of these is the Photosynthesis Experiment System Testing Operation (PESTO) experiment, the first plant science experiment to be conducted aboard the International Space Station once it is delivered by the crew of STS-110.

Designed by KSC, the PESTO experiment will study whether wheat will produce oxygen through photosynthesis and purify water through transpiration at the same rates as on Earth. The experiment could have a major impact on plans for future long-duration spaceflight, and will be followed by additional experiments aboard ISS.

Although he was born in Oklahoma, Dr. Stutte considers Fayetteville, Arkansas his home. He attended the University of Arkansas for two years in the Horticultural Food Sciences Program, finishing his BS degree in Biology at the Oklahoma State University. Dr. Stutte has a Masters Degree in Horticulture for the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Stutte served as a member of the horticulture faculty at the University of Maryland for six years, teaching both graduate and undergraduate horticulture courses.

 

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