Maria Santaguida is a researcher, consultant, and sessional lecturer specializing in human sexuality, sexual technology, digital sexual behaviour, and space sexology. Santaguida has eight years of experience teaching research methods and statistics to undergraduates in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University. Her doctoral research in Research Psychology, funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC), examines the associations between alcohol consumption, sex-related alcohol expectancies, and high-risk sexual behaviours in young adults.

Santaguida serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of CareChain, where she leads the development of innovative models of care for improving health outcomes and health systems performance, including their potential applications in spaceflight and exploration. She is also the Chief of Psychosocial Medicine at the Advanced Spacelife Research Institute (ASRI), where she directs research initiatives on the sexological dimensions of human space exploration.

Pioneering Work in Space Sexology
In late 2021, Santaguida co-authored an article titled The Case for Space Sexology, a landmark position paper that became the first comprehensive call for a biopsychosocial research agenda on intimacy, sexuality, and reproduction in space settings. The paper outlined the risks of neglecting sexual health in human spaceflight and directly challenged the historical reluctance of both national and private space agencies to address this topic.

Following its publication, NASA was asked to respond to the paper by Mic.com, and the agency stated that “should a future need for more in-depth study on reproductive health in space be identified, NASA would take the appropriate steps“.

To help identify this need, Santaguida & Simon Dubé published the peer-reviewed article, Sexual Health in Space: A 5-year Scoping Review, which systematically examined research released between 2018 and 2022. The review demonstrated that while most studies have focused on the biological risks, almost no studies have addressed intimacy, sexual behaviour or psychosocial well-being among humans in spaceflight.

Santaguida now works with the ASRI team to design and conduct empirical studies on human sexuality and intimacy in space analog environments. In parallel, she is also engaged in developing prototypes of sexual and intimacy-related technologies for space conditions.

Public Impact and Media Engagement
Santaguida and her colleagues contributions have helped pave the way for the comprehensive scientific study of human sexuality and intimacy in space settings. Her work has been featured in Business Insider, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, Mic, CBC, and other major outlets. In these features, she has emphasized the necessity of preparing for human intimate and sexual needs in future missions.

“More and more researchers around the globe and people working in the space sector recognize that addressing human intimate and sexual needs in space is one of the keys to unlocking our long-term expansion into the universe”
– Maria Santaguida
As quoted in: Inside The Push to Study Sex in Space on Mic.com

Academic & Professional Contributions
Beyond her research, Santaguida has also done consulting work in the private sector and for various academic-related programs and committees, such as Mentorship Among Psychology Students and the Graduate Instructors and Teaching Assistants Committee at Concordia University. She has received accolades for her leadership and involvement in various initiatives that enhance the quality of the undergraduate and graduate student experience in the Psychology Department at Concordia University.