
Michelle Lin (they/them) is a PhD student in the Human Systems Lab in the MIT Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics. They are a NASA Space Technology Graduate Fellow focused on creating an architectural design framework to mitigate behavioral health risks in long-duration spaceflight passively. They use a blended interdisciplinary approach to their work, combining bio-astronautical engineering, statistics, psychology, anthropology, and human-centered design. As a non-gender conforming, indigenous Taiwanese, queer, first-generation immigrant, Michelle has experienced the juxtaposition of exclusion in academic spaces and deep privilege from their education, which drives Michelle to demand justice and equity for marginalized communities. They aim to broaden their space habitat research applications to encompass isolated, confined, extreme, and resource-limited environments beyond spaceflight, such as in disaster-affected areas or for refugee and unhoused populations. Their research interests include psychological resilience in extreme environments, place-making in transitory spaces, human-environment interaction, and participatory action co-design. Michelle earned their MS from MIT in Aeronautics & Astronautics and BS in Applied Mathematics & Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder.