Lisa Vidonic is the newly hired Facility Engineer for Planetary Materials Curation. Before moving to Houston last month, she had never lived anywhere except Richmond, Virginia. Her parents, Tom and Catherine Fletcher, moved to Richmond in 1970 and she was born in 1978. She has an older sister, Sara, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Lisa says, "We are all Virginia Tech Hokies!"
Several exciting life changes have taken place during her last few months. Lisa graduated from Virginia Tech with a BS in Industrial & Systems Engineering in May 2000. She spent the month of June finalizing her wedding plans and was married to Nick Vidonic on July 8, 2000. After honeymooning in Jamaica, they drove from Richmond, Virginia to Houston, Texas in mid-July and both began their new careers in late July.
Her husband graduated from Virginia Tech this past May as well. He is a Chemical Engineer for ExxonMobil in Baytown.
Nick and Lisa are both very excited about their new lives here in Houston, and they are anxious to learn more about this exciting city. They are proud to be Texans now and look forward to visiting other cities across the state as well.
We welcome Lisa to Planetary Material Curation!
Anne Kascak, daughter of Andrew and Jacqueline Susce, was born is Warren, Ohio. After graduating from Lordstown High School, Anne married Ed Kascak, her high school sweetheart. After moving from Ohio to Alvin, Texas in 1980, Ed and Anne started a family. They have been married 20 years and have a son, Edward, who is 18, and a daughter, Roxanne, 16. Anne and Ed have opened their home to Meagan Sutton, also 18.
After both children were in school, Anne started her career in 1990 with the Alvin Independent School District as a Nurse's Assistant at Mark Twain Primary. In 1995, she started working an additional school Longfellow Elementary. She feels that working at a school had many exciting and at times very difficult challenges, but the challenges were rewarding when you see the smiles you receive from each and every child you have helped in some way.
Anne is presently working in the Sample Control Center. She sees this as an opportunity for professional growth and is looking forward to the experience. Anne enjoys spending time with her family, reading, going to the beach, and lots of shopping.
We also welcome Anne to Planetary Materials Curation!
The JSC Earth Science and Solar System Exploration Division welcomes Dr. John Lisle to the Lockheed Martin Staff. John is a microbiologist who works directly for the Astrobiology research group. His expertise is particularly valuable to Curation as we prepare for the challenges in planetary protection and ultra-clean processing of future samples from Mars. Dr. Lisle worked as a drinking water microbiologist for the City of Tampa Water Department, Tampa, FL for nine years before returning to the University of South Florida, Tampa for his Ph.D. During this time he was responsible for managing an environmental microbiology laboratory for Dr. Joan Rose, analyzing drinking water, wastewater, fresh water, ground water and marine waters for the presence and microbial ecology of bacteria, bacteriophage, enteroviruses and protozoan parasites. Prior to coming to JSC, he was a post-doctoral fellow at Montana State University's Department of Microbiology in the laboratory of Dr. Gordon McFeters. His current research interests and projects include the development rapid, non-culture based methods for the detection of bacteria and assessment of their physiological status, effects of microgravity on bacterial virulence (experiment to fly on shuttle mission STS-107), investigations of microbial interactions in mat systems associated with thermal springs in Yellowstone National Park and the impact of bacteria and viruses on microbial systems in the ice covered lakes of the Dry Valleys and the waters off the coast McMurdo Station in Antarctica.