Dr. Sarah Jane Pell (PhD 06, SSP06, ADAS 2 02, MA) is an artist/researcher and Founder/Director of the Aquabatics Research Team, Australia 2002-2008. Pell obtained a PhD ‘Aquabatics as new works of Live Art’, Edith Cowan University, Perth Australia 2005; a Masters of Arts, human performance, Victoria University, Melbourne Australia 1998; and a Bachelor of Fine Art drawing, Victoria College of the Arts, University of Melbourne 1995. She was a Visiting Reader at the Faculty of Live Arts and Human Performance, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham UK 2004, Collaborative Associate to SymbioticA: the art and science laboratory at the School of Anatomy & Human Biology, University of Western Australia 2003-5 becoming an Adjunct Lecturer to the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia, Perth 2006-09 and 2008 Woman in Research Project Artist in Residence, at Monash University, Melbourne Australia Faculty of Art and Design in 2008.

She obtained ADAS 2r commercial diver accreditation at The Underwater Centre Fremantle, Australia and published the ‘Aquabatics Operations Manual’ (Fremantle, Australia: Edith Cowan University, 2002). In 2006, she attended SSP06 space studies program at the International Space University, Strasbourg, France. She co-authored ‘Luna Gaia: a closed loop habitat for the Moon’ (Strasbourg, France: ISU 2006) and presented it at the NASA Ames Research Centre, Director’s Colloquium (Bay Area, California: ISU/NASA 2006). She currently prepares as Aquanaut Crew for the undersea habitat mission: Atlantica Expeditions I (Florida, USA: The League of New Worlds 2010). Previously focused on live art and architectures underwater, her postdoctoral focus is on the art of human performance behavior and limits underwater, outer space and in analogue extreme environments and the aesthetic and architectural possibilities thus proposed.

Dr. Pell is a Board Member on the Lifeboat Foundation: Scientific Freedom Board (2008), Business Board (2008) and New Media Art Board (2007-8) Dr. Pell is a member of the Australian Network for Art and Technology, (2000-8) Yasmin (2006-8), Dance-Tech (2005-8), Zero Gravity Arts Consortium (2006-8), the Space Generation Congress: Youth Advisory Council to the United Nations on Space Activities (2006) and Society for Underwater Technology (2005-8). Dr. Pell was awarded the 2004 Freedman Foundation Traveling Arts Scholarship, numerous new media awards and a Leonardo Abstract Service LABS Award for best PhD Dissertation Abstract: Art & Science (Michigan USA: Leonardo Journal, MIT Press, 2007).