Each year, Forbes offers up their “30 Under 30” lists, compiling names of young professionals who are excelling within their respective fields.
This year, a University of Maine alum joined their ranks.
Morgan Stosic, who earned her Ph.D. in psychology from UMaine in 2023 — she was also the Outstanding Graduate Student in the College of Liberal Arts of Sciences for that year — was named to the Forbes list in the Transportation and Aerospace category.
Stosic works as a research scientist for KBR at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, utilizing behavioral psychology to study and improve human performance in space. She uses facial expressions, body movements and other nonverbal cues to study fatigue, awareness and group dynamics.
Among other purposes, her work is being applied to the development of next-generation spacesuits, intended to be worn as astronauts explore the Moon’s South Pole in 2027. In essence, Stosic’s work helps others shoot for the stars.
In the following Q&A, Stosic talks about choosing her field of study, her discovery of this particular path, what a day in the life of a NASA behavioral scientist can look like, and more.
How did you decide on pursuing psychology as your field of study?
Initially, like many psychology students, I was attracted to the medical counseling side of psychology due to my general fascination with the brain and human behavior. However, my freshman year of college at Oregon State University, I joined a social psychology research lab to gain some related experience. I learned how to run experiments, do data analytics and even put together poster presentations for conferences.
What fascinated me most was that there were moments when I would run the final analysis on a series of data we had collected and realize that I was the only person in the world who knew the answer to the question we had asked. There was something so exciting to me about being at the forefront of a discovery; even if the question felt small, being the only one to know the answer felt large! So, I decided to focus my career instead on becoming a psychological scientist.
What attracted you to the University of Maine? And what was your UMaine academic experience like?
I initially became interested in attending the University of Maine for my graduate studies due to the research portfolio of then-professor Dr. Mollie Ruben, who I believed would be a good match to the kinds of topics I was hoping to study. When I visited UMaine for my interview, I was impressed with the heart of the community and supportive spirit of the graduate students already enrolled in the program, which matched the values of what I was looking for in a Ph.D. program.
My graduate experience matched these initial impressions, where I formed close academic relationships with the graduate students and professors in the program and was connected to robust networks of researchers and professionals outside of UMaine, giving me exposure to diverse experiences of paper writing, data analytics and conference presentations with others in the field.
One doesn’t necessarily hear “behavioral science” and think “NASA.” What led you to follow this particular path?
While at UMaine, I set the goal of improving my grant writing skills. I saw that the university was accepting applications for the Maine Space Grant Consortium (MSGC) award and decided to apply as a learning exercise, assuming an application from a psychological science student would not be competitive against those from aerospace technology, space science or Earth science. Surprisingly, I was awarded the grant and was matched with Dr. Erin Flynn-Evans of NASA’s Fatigue Countermeasures Laboratory as a mentor.
I began to realize that psychological science was not only valued within such a highly engineering- and technology-driven organization — it was essential. When I later saw a research psychologist position open in the Behavioral Health and Performance Laboratory at Johnson Space Center, I was inspired to apply and continue exploring the intersection of psychology and space research.
What does a typical day in your work life look like? Does such a thing even exist?
It typically falls into one of four categories; applying to calls for research to address fundamental risks to NASA, developing research protocols to address these challenges, collecting data from test subjects, and analyzing that data.
More concretely, that means that I may sometimes be working at my computer writing or analyzing data, I may sometimes be at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, one of the world’s largest indoor pools, helping collect data from research subjects in a neutral gravity environment, or I may be meeting with astronauts who are about to take flight, or have recently landed, in order to conduct cognitive performance testing. No two days are ever the same!
What advice would you offer current students — undergraduate and graduate — about maximizing their UMaine experience?
For undergrads, my biggest piece of advice would be to really pay attention to the things that excite you in your courses and reach out to professors to find out how you can do more of that thing. Even though I wasn’t directly interested in psychology research at the time, one of the best decisions I’ve ever made was joining a research lab as a college freshman to simply get my hands into more psychology. College is the perfect time to spread your net, try new things and really dig deep to find your “spark.”
For graduate students, my biggest piece of advice would be to put yourself out there for the sake of learning, even if you expect to fail. Apply for grants you have no business applying for, seek out internships you may not feel qualified for, write the paper you don’t think you’re knowledgeable enough to write yet — the experience of learning is worth it on its own, and you never know when you might get that lucky break.
Can you give an example of an “I can’t believe this is my job” moment? Something unexpected or amazing or both?
I have these moments almost every day! One that stands out to me is that I was able to attend a training session for the Artemis II crew on emergency procedures in the event of a crash-landing scenario upon their return to Earth. Being in the presence of the Artemis II crew, who will be the first humans to leave Earth’s orbit in over 50 years and will travel the furthest into deep space that humans have ever been, was surreal. And knowing that the research I help conduct here plays one small role in giving humans the tools and knowledge to make those advances back to the moon, and on to Mars, truly makes me feel like “I can’t believe this is my job.”
Contact: Allen Adams, allen.adams@maine.edu
