Zane Hays received his bachelor's degree in both Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis. During his time at UC Davis, he was part of several clubs, including the Advanced Modeling and Aeronautics Team (AMAT), and conducted research in Professor Robinson's HRVIP lab. He also completed several NASA internships. After graduation, Zane worked at NASA Ames for several years, where he contributed to numerous projects, providing support in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), trajectory optimization, probabilistic reliability and route planning, and Thermal Protection Systems (TPS), among others. Zane was heavily involved in NASA's Pterodactyl project and published several papers on the subject. Upon his acceptance to UC Davis's Aerospace PhD program, he began research into ionizing radiation protection systems for human spaceflight. This research encompasses the modeling of passive and active radiation protection systems and aims to develop a comprehensive analysis of the interactions and capabilities of the leading theorized protection systems. Zane also began to indulge his love of teaching, serving as an assistant instructor for several classes and a teaching assistant for many others.