During his 2-3 year appointment, Dr. Porterfield will be based at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., and will oversee and manage Fundamental Space Biology, Physical Sciences, and all Human Research within NASA while providing oversight to the International Space Station National Lab. He will be a lead inter-agency contact between NASA and the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

D. Marshall Porterfield is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Agricultural & Biological Engineering with a joint appointment in Horticulture and Landscape Architecture. Dr. Porterfield received his B.S. from the University of South Alabama in biology with a focus on cell biology and his Ph.D. at Louisiana State University. Dr. Porterfield conducted post-doctoral research at the Marine Biological Lab at Woods Hole in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Before joining the ABE faculty in 2005 he was an assistant professor in Biological Sciences & Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

Dr. Porterfield's teaching and research focus is on advanced physiological sensing technologies for research applications in biology, agriculture, and medicine. Specific projects include: scanning probe sensor technology, biosensors, bioMEMS, bionanotechnology, and lab-on-a-chip systems. He also is working with plant systems in bioregenerative life support systems for spaceflight. His work in this area includes cell signaling, biophysical limitations in microgravity, nutrient delivery technology, and biomimetic sensors.