James Anthony "Jim" Pawelczyk (September 20, 1960) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
astronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
, and Associate Professor of Physiology and Kinesiology at Penn State.
He was born in
Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, second only to New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River, Buffalo is the principal city of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the seat of Erie...
, although he considers
Elma, New YorkElma is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 11,304 at the 2000 census. The town is named after a type of tree....
, a suburb of Buffalo, as his hometown. He has two children. His hobbies include cycling, swimming, woodworking, philately, and outdoor activities. Pawelczyk is the first astronaut of full-blooded Polish descent to go into space.
James Anthony "Jim" Pawelczyk (September 20, 1960) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
astronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
, and Associate Professor of Physiology and Kinesiology at Penn State.
Family background
He was born in
Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, second only to New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River, Buffalo is the principal city of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the seat of Erie...
, although he considers
Elma, New YorkElma is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 11,304 at the 2000 census. The town is named after a type of tree....
, a suburb of Buffalo, as his hometown. He has two children. His hobbies include cycling, swimming, woodworking, philately, and outdoor activities. Pawelczyk is the first astronaut of full-blooded Polish descent to go into space. Polish Cosmonaut Mirosław Hermaszewski, was the first Pole in space in 1978 when he flew aboard a Soyuz 30 spacecraft as part of a Soviet bloc program 'Interkosmos') . In 1999, Pawelczyk and three other astronauts from the STS-90 crew were guests of State of the Republic of Poland. He presented the president with the Polish flag that flew with him aboard space shuttle, Columbia. His parents, Joe and Rita, along with representatives of the Polish American Congress from Buffalo and Chicago accompanied the crew on their visit.
Education
Graduated from Iroquois Central High School, Elma,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, in 1978. Went on to earn two bachelor of arts degrees in biology and psychology from the
University of RochesterThe University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university located in Rochester, New York. The University grants undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and professional degrees through six schools and various interdisciplinary programs...
, New York in 1982. At
Pennsylvania State UniversityThe Pennsylvania State University is a state-related, land-grant, space grant public research university located in the University Park area and within State College and College Township in Pennsylvania, United States...
he earned a master of science degree in
physiologyPhysiology is the science of the functioning of living systems. It is a subcategory of biology...
in 1985, and a doctor of philosophy degree in
biologyBiology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...
(physiology) from the
University of North TexasThe University of North Texas is a public university located in Denton, Texas. UNT is the flagship of the University of North Texas System, which also includes the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth, the University of North Texas at Dallas and the soon to be established University of North...
in 1989. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1992.
Scholarly Activity
Dr. Pawelczyk is co-editor of Blood Loss and Shock, published in 1994. He has been a principal investigator or co-investigator on 11 federal and state grants and contracts, and has over 20 refereed journal articles and 3 invited book chapters in the areas of cardiovascular regulation and cardiovascular physiology.
Professional career
Post-doctoral fellowship in cardiovascular neurophysiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 1989-1992; Visiting scientist, Department of Anaesthesia, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1990; Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 1992-1995; Director, Autonomic and Exercise Physiology Laboratories, Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, 1992-1995; Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 1995; Associate Professor of Physiology and Kinesiology, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1995-present. Dr. Pawelczyk took leave from Penn State University to fly as a payload specialist on STS-90 (Neurolab).
NASA career
User design group, GASMAP (Gas Analysis System for Metabolic Analysis Physiology); Unit principal investigator for the NASA Specialized Center for Outreach, Research and Training (NSCORT) grant in integrative physiology. He received a NASA Young Investigator Award in 1994 for his work in the area of autonomic neurophysiology. Dr. Pawelczyk was a co-investigator for experiments flown on the Neurolab mission, and two Shuttle-Mir (Phase 1B) flights. Most recently, Dr. Pawelczyk served as a Payload Specialist on STS-90 Neurolab (April 17 to May 3, 1998). During the 16-day Spacelab flight the seven person crew aboard
Space Shuttle ColumbiaSpace Shuttle Columbia was the first spaceworthy Space Shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. First launched on the STS-1 mission, the first of the Space Shuttle program, it flew a total of 27 times before being destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 on the STS-107 mission , killing all seven...
served as both experiment subjects and operators for 26 individual life science experiments focusing on the effects of microgravity on the brain and nervous system. The
STS-90STS-90 is a mission of the United States Space Shuttle.-Crew:-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass:**Orbiter landing with payload: 105,462 kg**Payload: 10,788 kg*Perigee: 247 km*Apogee: 274 km...
flight orbited the Earth 256 times, covered 6.3 million miles, and logged over 381 hours in space. Pawelczyk testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation in 2003. His testimony advocated strengthening research on board the International Space Station. He is a standing member of NASA's Life Sciences Advisory Subcommittee, and served as a member of the Research Maximization and Prioritization (ReMAP) Taskforce in 2002.
Honors and Awards
Research Scientist, United States Olympic Swimming Trials, 1984; Pre-doctoral training award, National Institutes of Health, 1988-1989; Research award, Texas Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine, 1988; Post-doctoral training award, National Institutes of Health, 1989-1992; Young Investigator Award, Life Sciences Project Division, NASA Office of Life and Microgravity Science Applications, 1994, NASA Space Flight Medal (1998).
External links