A blend of astronomy, biology, geology, chemistry and other sciences, astrobiology is a growing field of research that investigates habitable environments on Earth and elsewhere in our universe to inform a future most of us can hardly imagine, much less understand. Sriya Pothapragada Ph.D. ’28 is among those pursuing the origins of life, on our planet and beyond, and she’s doing it from Rarefied Air
The plane levels off at jump altitude, and Sriya Pothapragada inches toward an open door, feeling a blast of air in her face. Perched at the opening’s edge, she stares at a patchwork of colors, quilting the Earth below.
Deeply she breathes in, exhaling slowly, before launching herself forward into a free fall above the city of Anderson, South Carolina — just miles from Clemson University, where she is a third-year Ph.D. student studying genetics.
“You look down, and everything is tiny,” Pothapragada recalls of her most recent jump.
“Height and falling are intrinsically scary. For my first 30 or 40 jumps, it was sheer discipline to get out that door, but I did it because I knew what was on the other side,” she explains. “Once you get over the door fear, it’s the best thing ever. There’s absolutely nothing like it.”
That instinct — to push past fear and into the unknown — doesn’t only apply to an extreme sport. It extends to Pothapragada’s work at Clemson as a researcher and scientist exploring life beyond Earth.
Space travel study
Pothapragada is studying genetics but pursuing a career as an astrobiologist. This specialized field of science studies the possibility of life beyond Earth. As a profession, these scientists work to understand how life originates and how it can evolve and adapt to survive in environments where survival seems impossible.
Her newest challenge: understanding how the human body changes when astronauts go to space. For her dissertation, she’s researching which parts of the human genome — the complete set of DNA that contains genetic instructions for making the proteins that build and run our bodies — shift or adapt when people experience the stresses of space flight.
As space travel expands and research into the habitability of other planets grows, the answers to the questions Pothapragada is asking will matter more. Key research areas for astrobiology include things like the search for exoplanets, studying extreme environments on Earth as planetary analogs and developing technology for future space missions.
NASA has scientific studies that include vast datasets collected from astronauts on the International Space Station — both from short missions and longer space station stays. Pothapragada is tapping into that data and using advanced tools such as multiomics (which looks at many types of biological data at the same time); she will also take machine learning and data science approaches to analyze RNA, which converts DNA’s instructions into proteins that carry out cellular functions.
By studying patterns in the RNA data, Pothapragada hopes to learn and share more about how our bodies respond and adjust when we’re in space.
“It sounds super sci-fi, but it really boils down to how the human genome adapts to different levels of radiation, less oxygen, microgravity and that kind of thing,” she explains. “The goal is to look on several different levels and from different angles of genomic regulation to try to understand what happens and why it happens.”
The first jump
Pothapragada’s first taste of skydiving came in 2019 during a family trip to the Pocono Mountains to see fall foliage. Her mother commented about how nice the fall colors would look from the sky, and Pothapragada decided to go on a tandem skydive, something that was already on her bucket list.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering in 2023 from the University of Maryland and began looking at Ph.D. programs. She wanted to specialize in a hard science, and she chose Clemson because of the genetics program’s faculty and computational resources.
“Between the supercomputing resources that are here and the faculty that were working on them, I just knew it was going to be a good fit,” she says.
It didn’t hurt that Clemson also has one of the oldest collegiate skydiving clubs in the nation. And there was a jump class scheduled two days after she moved in.
“That first time, everything was fine until the door opened. I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ We had practiced how to climb out of the plane and get set up to exit safely on the ground. But it’s different once the prop’s spinning and you have all that prop wash and sensory overload,” she recalls. “I think the scariest part 100 percent is that moment in the door.
“I’ll never forget two things: the feeling of that wind on my face — because it was so strong — and the sound. It was so loud. In a jump plane, you hear everything.”
“I think skydiving has taught me to be a more well-rounded scientist. Skydiving teaches you a healthy dose of being confident but humble at the same time.”
— Sriya Pothapragada
High flying, free falling
Since joining the skydiving club in August 2023, Pothapragada has made over 150 jumps and earned her skydiving license.
“I think it was on jump 13 when I finally relaxed when falling,” she says. “I was looking down, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is so cool.’ The sound of the wind rushing past my ears quieted down a bit, finally. It was so peaceful.”
She credits Jim and Sarah Burriss, owners of the Flying Tiger Sport Parachute Center in Anderson, the skydiving club’s advisors and Clemson alumni for her growth in the sport.
“They’ve been amazing mentors to me,” she notes.
It was Sarah who convinced Pothapragada to compete in the U.S. Parachute Association’s National Collegiate Skydiving Championship in 2024 in Zephyrhills, Florida.
Pothapragada and her skydiving partner, Nick Van Zyl ’25, competed in the two-way formation skydiving competition.
In that competition, skydivers jump from the plane and have about half a minute of free fall. During that time, they work together to complete as many of the predetermined formations as they can. A videographer records their performance, and judges on the ground watch the video to count how many formation points the team gets.
They finished fourth in their category and were the top-placing team from a nonmilitary school. As she continues to progress as a skydiver, Pothapragada says she wants to compete in the U.S. Parachute Association’s National Skydiving Championship one day. She says confidence was by far the most important thing she’s acquired from skydiving.
“Hands down,” she says. “I think about how I was two years ago when I walked into that first jump class and how I am now. It’s so different.”
That also translates into the classroom, she says.
“I think skydiving has taught me to be a more well-rounded scientist. Skydiving teaches you a healthy dose of being confident but humble at the same time,” she says.
“You need to trust yourself and your instincts and ask the right questions, and you should be confident enough to do that and look out for yourself. The humility comes from having to think about what scares you, what you want and how much you’re willing to put in to get it.”
Five fun facts about skydiving at Clemson
- The Clemson University Skydiving Club, also known as the Dixie Skydivers, was started by two ex-U.S. Army paratroopers in 1959, making it one of the oldest collegiate skydiving clubs in the nation.
- The club wasn’t officially recognized by the University until 1962. Members announced they’d be jumping onto Bowman Field. Vice President for Student Affairs Walter Cox said anyone who did would be kicked out of school. That day, a large crowd watched a skydiver in full gear run across Bowman at the appointed time, climb a ladder that had been placed under a jump target, jump and pull his ripcord while yelling, “Geronimo!” The club was recognized shortly after.
- A free fall lasts 30 to 60 seconds, depending on the altitude from which a skydiver jumps.
- During a free fall in a belly-to-earth position, a skydiver’s speed reaches around 120 miles per hour.
- There are four licenses a skydiver can achieve (A, B, C and D), each representing progressively higher levels of skill and experience.
Cindy Landrum is a writer for the College of Science. Photography by Ashley Jones.
