Meganne Christian

Dr. Meganne Christian studied at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and graduated in 2009 with a degree in industrial chemical engineering. In 2014, she obtained her PhD with a thesis titled “Core-shell borohydrides for reversible hydrogen storage,” in which she studied the design, synthesis, and advanced characterization of nanomaterials for hydrogen storage applications. She has received several national and international awards for her research.

Between 2014 and 2023, Meganne worked as a researcher at the National Research Council of Bologna, as part of the European Union's scientific research initiative, the Graphene Flagship. During this period, she participated in two parabolic flight campaigns to test graphene coatings for the thermal management of satellites.

From 2018 to 2019, Meganne served as a winter-over scientist at the Concordia Station in Antarctica. As the lead scientist for atmospheric physics and meteorology at the Franco-Italian research base, she was responsible for various observatories, including radiation, meteorology, stratospheric lidar, chemical and physical atmospheric aerosols, and infrared radiation for Antarctic clouds. She returned to the Concordia Station for the summer season 2020-21.

In November 2022, Meganne was selected from over 22,500 candidates across Europe to be part of the European Space Agency's astronaut reserve, one of only 17 selected to be part of the first astronaut class in 13 years. Since 2023, she has been working as a reserve astronaut / Senior Exploration Manager (Commercial) at the UK Space Agency, providing advice on human and robotic spaceflight in the post-ISS landscape. She began training as a reserve astronaut in January 2025.