Steven H. Platts

Steven H. Platts guides scientific content for NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP). As the program’s chief scientist, he ensures scientific integrity, ethics, and quality.

Platts joined NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in 2003 as a senior scientist in the Cardiovascular Physiology Laboratory, later becoming laboratory director. He led many experiments for the lab, including several that ran on the space shuttle, the International Space Station, bed rest platforms, and parabolic flights. 

Platts moved into the role of an increment scientist in 2013 and later as an element scientist for the space station’s Medical Projects element. He joined HRP leadership as deputy chief scientist in 2018.

Platts graduated with a bachelor of science in Zoology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1987. He earned a doctor in philosophy in Cardiovascular Physiology from Texas A&M University Health Science Center in 2000. Platts went to the University of Virginia for his postdoctoral fellowship under the guidance of Dr. Brian Duling.