Obituary of Vasanta Lakshmi Putcha

Vasanta Lakshmi Putcha, Ph.D., Chief Pharmacologist at NASA-Johnson Space Center, started her career as a post-doctoral fellow in 1982 and went on to develop cutting-edge applications for astronaut health care operations in space and on Earth. Over the course of her career, Vasanta was awarded grants by the National Institutes of Health and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, to name just a few. Her contributions to the field of Pharmacotherapeutics include significantly expanding our knowledge of the wide-ranging effects of space flight on humans, as well as resolving critical human health and safety issues for future exploratory missions, including ones to Mars. Vasanta was driven by an insatiable curiosity and an uncompromising pursuit for excellence. In her own words, the guiding principle of her life was, “if you can dream it, you can achieve it.” This passion infused all aspects of her personality—she was a rasika in the truest sense of the word; a gardener and botanist extraordinaire; a gifted writer; and a fount of wisdom and experience. In short, she was a force of nature–her energy and capacity for love were essentially unbounded. Although her life was unexpectedly cut short, her spirit will endure through the many lives she touched. A service for Vasanta will be held Wednesday, September 30, 2015 at 1:00 pm at Clayton Funeral Home, 5530 W. Broadway, Pearland, Texas 77581.