Briefly, tell us about your background and career up to this point?
I originally trained in medicine in Edinburgh and then joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) to pursue my interest in aerospace medicine and the effects of unusual and extreme environments on human physiology and performance. That interest was strongly influenced by spending a year here at King’s during medical school completing the MSc in Human and Applied Physiology. The MSc was taught alongside the Diploma in Aviation Medicine – the course that, many years later, I now run.
My career has taken me through clinical medicine, military aviation, research and academia, and eventually back to King’s, where I now lead the Aerospace Medicine and Extreme Physiology group within the Centre for Human & Applied Physiological Sciences.
A lot of my work today sits at the intersection of medicine, physiology, engineering and human spaceflight. I set up and direct our Spacesuit Physiology Laboratory (SPL), and alongside my role at King’s I work with the European Space Agency (ESA), where I currently Chair the ESA Medical Board. It has been quite a varied journey, which is one of the things I have enjoyed most about it.
Do you have any current projects that you’d like to tell us about?
One of the things I am most excited about at the moment is developing our Spacesuit Physiology Laboratory (SPL), a collaborative network bringing together researchers from different disciplines and organisations to undertake human-centric research and design for human spaceflight.
There are lots of projects now developing around the SPL, from spacesuit physiology and decompression sickness to physiological monitoring, human performance, testing new analogue spacesuits, and simulated lunar spacewalks. Ultimately, we are trying to help build some of the people, collaborations, research capability, and innovative technologies needed to support future human exploration of the Moon and beyond.
What is something positive that happened to you over the last year?
Being appointed Chair of the European Space Agency (ESA) Medical Board was a real highlight. I have been involved with ESA for a number of years, so it was a huge honour to be asked to take on the role and to have the opportunity to work with colleagues from across Europe on the medical aspects of human spaceflight.
Closer to home, it has also been really rewarding to see the Spacesuit Physiology Laboratory continue to grow, with new collaborations, projects and researchers starting to develop around it.
What is your favourite part of your role?
Helping to create a supportive environment in which people can learn, develop and find opportunities to take their careers in the directions they want to go. I particularly enjoy being able to create some of the opportunities that I would have loved to have had earlier in my own career.
But the best part is simply watching people grow and develop personally and professionally during their time with us, and seeing where they go next.
What do you think people in the School would find most surprising about you?
Probably that I have a skydiving license. Or perhaps that during my RAF career I was also a member of the RAF snowboard team. I’ve always enjoyed outdoor activities, physical challenges and a bit of adventure, so perhaps neither should be entirely surprising!
What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
Learn another language properly – and stick with it! It is one of those things where a relatively small but consistent investment of time over many years would have paid enormous dividends.
Otherwise, I’m not sure I would want to change too much. I’d say keep saying yes to interesting opportunities, be positive and enthusiastic, be kind to people, and enjoy the journey. Careers rarely develop exactly as you expect them to, and many of the opportunities I have had have come through the people I have met, learned from and worked with along the way.
What are you most looking forward to this year?
Seeing some of the things we have been building over the last few years really start to develop. In particular, I am looking forward to growing the Spacesuit Physiology Laboratory, welcoming five new PhD students this October, and stretching myself professionally as we bring more interdisciplinary approaches from the arts, humanities and social sciences into our traditionally medical, physiological and engineering-focused work.
More broadly, there is a huge amount happening in human spaceflight at the moment as we prepare for a return to the Moon, which is super exciting! Being able to contribute, even in a small way, to developing the people, research and capabilities that might support that is enormously exciting.
Quick fire
Coffee order: Flat white.
Favourite cuisine: BBQ – preferably cooked outdoors.
The superpower you would choose if you could: Flying. Definitely flying!
The last photo on your phone: A photo from the launch of Kevin Fong’s new book, Minute 6. Kevin is a friend and colleague from the space medicine world, and I was lucky enough to be invited along to the launch.