When Mehr Un Nisa first met with her Ohio State advisor, he asked her what her dream was. Her response? Work with NASA.

Maybe a bit off-beat considering she was studying food science and not, say, aerospace engineering. Only this being Ohio State, maybe outer space isn’t so out of reach?

Soon after that initial conversation, Nisa was hired for an important NASA research project: Testing out innovative food production technology for long-duration space missions.

“As a child, looking at all the magical things that happen in the stars, then learning what NASA does, it was all fascinating to me. Working with NASA became my childhood dream,” says Nisa, a graduate student in Ohio State’s Department of Food Science and Technology. “But before coming to Ohio State, I never thought food scientists could work with NASA. But Ohio State enabled me to do that.

“I will always see Ohio State as the place where I achieved my dream.”

Last summer, Nisa joined the Simunauts — simulation astronauts — four Ohio State students from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) hired as part of the final phase of NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge.

Ohio State’s Simunaut team included Nisa; Charlie Frick, a senior majoring in animal sciences; Sakura Sugiyama ’24, a food science graduate; and Fuanyi Fobellah, a senior studying food business management.

“It was incredible to contribute to a project like this,” Fobellah says. “Knowing I was helping NASA, helping these companies improve their technology, it was amazing going to work every day. It really inspired me, opened my eyes to the possibilities of what I could do with my degree.”

Mehr Un Nisa on her Ohio State experience: “What makes Ohio State such a great institution is you don’t just get a great education, you get to apply what you learn. When I came here, I had the mindset of getting all the experiences I could because my long-term goal is to be a better food scientist through great research, and that’s what I got here. When I came to Ohio State, my dream was to one day work for NASA, but I didn’t really think it was possible. But because of my experiences here, it’s not just a dream, it’s a goal now. I’m one step closer.”

Fuanyi Fobellah on his Ohio State experience: “It was an amazing experience, working with NASA. Knowing each day we were contributing to a large project like this was a great feeling, something you looked forward to each day. I never thought I’d come to Ohio State and get to work on a project like this. But it inspired me, it opened my eyes to new opportunities, new areas I can apply my degree to one day.”