Gravity as a Boundary Condition for the Evolution of Three-Dimensional Multicellularity

Oliver Ullrich is Full Professor of Aerospace Medicine and Director of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at the University of Zurich, where he also leads the Innovation Cluster Space and Aviation (UZH Space Hub). He is Chairman of the Center for Space and Aviation Switzerland and Liechtenstein (CSA), a physician and biochemist specialized in anatomy, cell biology, immunology, and aerospace medicine, and also holds a post-graduate diploma in theology from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. He is Ambassador of the Greater Zurich Area and is strongly committed to space innovation and entrepreneurship. He also serves as Honorary Professor of Space Medicine at EAH Jena, Professor of Space Biotechnology at the University of Magdeburg, and Adjunct Professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology. He is an elected Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics, former President of the German Society for Aerospace Medicine, President of the Swiss SkyLab Foundation, and initiator and leader of the Swiss Parabolic Flight Program. With 20 years of experience in ESA and NASA life sciences research, he has led parabolic flight, suborbital rocket, and ISS missions focused on human cellular adaptation to altered gravity. His mission record includes 17 parabolic flight, 9 suborbital, and 9 orbital missions, with more than 1,200 parabolas flown and over 7 hours in microgravity. In 2023, he received the International Academy of Astronautics Life Sciences Award.