Dr. Mark Shelhamer

Mark Shelhamer, Sc.D. Chief Scientist, NASA Human Research Program (mark.j.shelhamer@nasa.gov) Associate Professor Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery Department of Biomedical Engineering The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine Dr. Shelhamer joined the Human Research Program in June of 2013, on a two-year rotation while on leave from his academic position at Johns Hopkins where he started as a postdoctoral fellow in 1990. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Drexel University, and a doctoral degree in Biomedical Engineering from MIT. At MIT he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Larry Young on sensorimotor physiology and modeling, including the study of astronaut adaptation to space flight and participation on two sets of Spacelab experiments (SL-1 and D-1). He then moved to Johns Hopkins where he continued the study of sensorimotor adaptation with an emphasis on the vestibular and oculomotor systems. Having put aside space research to acquire a firmer background in neurobiology at Johns Hopkins, he was invited to participate in the Neurovestibular Adaptation team of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) when it started in 1997. Since then he has had support from both NSBRI and NASA to study various aspects of sensorimotor adaptation to space, amassing a fair amount of parabolic flight time in the process. He has also served as an advisor to the commercial spaceflight industry on the research potential of suborbital flight. In parallel with these activities, he has applied nonlinear dynamical analysis to the control of eye movements, including the functional implications of fractal activity. He is the author of Nonlinear Dynamics in Physiology: A State-Space Approach, has published over 70 scientific papers, and has had research support from NIH, NSF, NASA, NSBRI, and the Whitaker Foundation. He gave up his NASA grant and his modest career as a musician to come to Houston to serve as Chief Scientist.