Biography

For 30 years, Michael Calaway has worked towards perfecting his craft of curation and preservation ranging from museum archaeological artifacts and geologic specimens to NASA astromaterial collections. Since 2005, he has worked for JACOBS at NASA Johnson Space Center, Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office. A geochemist, field geologist, archaeologist, and museum curator by education and training, he is internationally known for his advanced science planning and curation expertise on every NASA sample return mission after Apollo. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated exceptional leadership and management of several NASA curation projects that involved interfacing with complex multidisciplinary international team environments across multiple NASA centers, international partners, academia, and industry.

Today, Michael Calaway is the Principal Scientist for Mars Advanced Development and is responsible for programmatic planning and executing Mars Sample Return (MSR) once samples are returned to Earth. This involves advanced development of pristine high containment isolators; robotic and mechanical sample handling; ISO Class 1-7 cleanrooms; BSL-4 high containment strategies; precision cleaning; inorganic, organic, and biological monitoring and decontamination technology; contamination control and planetary protection integration; and incorporation of science instrumentation for basic sample characterization and preliminary science within a sample receiving facility (SRF). In addition, he continues to be a member of the NASA JPL/JSC team supporting the international NASA/ESA MSR SRF advanced studies. He also continues to provide science and curation expertise to OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 sample return missions as well as other sample return missions and efforts related to astromaterials curation, planetary science, and its infrastructure at JSC. At NASA, he has received 26 awards (including 6 agency level group achievements) as well as published and presented over 80 scientific papers related to astromaterials curation and sample return science.