Brian Shiro

Brian Shiro's lifelong ambition is to explore space and in doing so help improve life on Earth. He is a Geophysicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, providing operational expertise with earthquake seismology and tsunami warning. His diverse background includes jobs working in upper atmosphere physics, carbon nanotubes, satellite radar mapping, geochemistry, glaciology, geodesy, biophysics, impact cratering, microgravity science, seafloor mapping, and high performance computing. He has led and participated in ten remote field expeditions to remote locations including Antarctica, Alaska, Canada, and the tropical Pacific. Brian was a Highly Qualified NASA astronaut applicant in 2009. Subsequently, he served as crew Geophysicist on a month-long simulated Mars mission at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island, Canada and as Commander on a two-week mission at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah. In 2010, he co-founded Astronauts for Hire (A4H), an organization dedicated to creating the next generation commercial astronaut workforce. Through A4H, he has completed Research Specialist Astronaut training, which involves such activities as high gravity centrifuge training, zero gravity parabolic flight, emergency egress training, and spatial disorientation assessments. Shiro holds a B.A. with triple majors in Integrated Science, Geology, and Physics from Northwestern University, a M.A. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, and a M.S. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota. He is also a graduate of the International Space University and is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Hawaii. In his spare time, Shiro is a marathon runner, SCUBA diver, private pilot, and outdoor extreme sports enthusiast. He lives in Hawaii with his wife and two young children and blogs about his experiences towards becoming an astronaut at http://www.astronautforhire.com/.