Nasa selects UVM alum Imelda Muller for astronaut coaching

UVM Larner College of Medicine alum Imelda Muller is one in every of NASA’s 10 new astronaut candidates, out of a pool of 8,000, the area company introduced Monday.

“With upcoming exploration missions, we’re pushing the boundaries of human efficiency. The classes that we study, the information that we achieve, all of these items are going to assist us excel not simply in area however in areas of human well being right here on Earth. The future of medication is now, and I’m extremely honored to be right here with this crew, Muller stated throughout NASA’s announcement on the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Muller, an anesthesiologist, graduated from the medical faculty in 2017 after which labored as an undersea medical officer following coaching on the Naval Undersea Medical Institute, in Connecticut. She studied within the Naval Medical Center in San Diego and have become a naval lieutenant. She did her residency in anesthesia and demanding care drugs at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

“That experience gave me the opportunity to work with multidisciplinary teams in experimental and saturation diving, and I developed a passion for learning about the way the body adapts in extreme environments,” Muller stated on the announcement occasion. “This led me to pursue medical residency training in anesthesia, where I deepened that understanding of how our body responds when it’s under stress. I am incredibly excited to be here alongside this team and to build on that foundation.”

Before coming to UVM, Muller studied behavioral neuroscience as an undergraduate at Northeastern University.

Now, she and the opposite 9 candidates will undergo two years of NASA coaching to turn into eligible for flight assignments. The program will embody spacewalk simulations and survival coaching.

Muller is one in every of two within the astronaut coaching class with a medical background and, at 34, is without doubt one of the youngest on the crew.

“The UVM community is thrilled to see Dr. Imelda Muller joining NASA’s newest cadre of astronaut candidates,” UVM President Marlene Tromp stated within the college’s press launch. She additionally attended the announcement occasion on the Johnson Space Center.

UVM is a part of the Vermont Space Grant Consortium, a NASA companion program that connects these fascinated about science, expertise, engineering and arithmetic tasks with alternatives to work with the area company. Many Larner college students have participated in a four-week Aerospace Medicine Clerkship on the Johnson Space Center.

This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which affords its reporting for free of charge to native information organizations by its Community News Sharing Project. To study extra, go to vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.

What to Read Next