Biochemistry in space?

[Greywind]

As a current college junior majoring in both biochemistry and neuroscience (MSU), with a few years of lab experience in both of those fields and plant biology as well, I was wondering about a few things. I have this dream of bettering mankind through space, be it helping to grow plants on Mars, studying the effects of drugs in space, or working with engineered organisms. Currently doing research, I have no idea where to go from here, my first thoughts are NASA, but again, I don't know. Here's to wishing spacex had a biochemistry department, but that may be a more long-term goal..

I was wondering if I could get any feedback, or at least a direction to look!

To put it simply, I want to make Carl Sagan's (and countless others) vision of humanity exploring the stars a reality.

[Soda Popinski]

It might be a good idea to write to someone in educational outreach at NASA. Maybe do an internship or some volunteer research at a NASA associated facility. I worked in research for a couple of years after my undergrad before going back for my doctorate. The experience helps (both to let you know if you really like research and helps on the application to grad school).

My bet is you'll have to go to graduate school for at least a Masters, probably a Doctorate. See if there are any cross-disciplinary programs or departments at Cal Tech. Since you're interested in the biological sciences, you may be able to find a professor with the same interests who can get a collaboration with a scientist at JPL. Check out the faculty website of Cal Tech and try to find a professor with similar research interests, and reach out to her or him.