Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. June 22,
1994
(Phone: 202/358-1979)

RELEASE: 94-100

NASA SELECTS SCIENTISTS FOR NEUROLAB SHUTTLE MISSION

NASA announced today the selection of 34 scientists who will participate in the experiment definition phase of the Neurolab Space Shuttle mission. Neurolab, a 14 to 16-day joint Shuttle mission with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) devoted to brain and behavioral research, is scheduled for launch in early 1998.

The 34 investigators were selected from over 170 scientists from around the world who submitted proposals for experiments to be conducted on the mission. All of the proposals underwent rigorous peer review conducted by the NIH Division of Research Grants which evaluated them for their scientific merit. The chosen studies were deemed to be the best experiments that could be accommodated on the Space Shuttle. The selected scientists are from the United States, Japan, France, Canada, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Nigeria.

The Neurolab scientists will be organized into investigator teams, based on the scientific areas of their research. Examples of topics that will be studied include how the brain develops in microgravity, how the sense of balance and control of movement is altered in microgravity and what effects the space environment has on sleep and the body's biological rhythms. The teams will undergo a ten-month science definition period during which time each team will produce an integrated research plan based on the original proposals. After the science definition period, the integrated research plans will once again be reviewed to ensure that the experiments to be conducted on the mission are of the highest quality.

The Neurolab Mission is being carried out by NASA in cooperation with a variety of domestic and international partners. The major domestic partner is the NIH, specifically the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood

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Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Division of Research Grants. The National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research also are domestic partners. International partners include the European Space Agency and the space agencies of Japan, France, Germany and Canada. The partners are supporting the mission by providing some funding for the scientists, supplying scientific equipment to be used on the Space Shuttle and participating in mission planning.

The Neurolab scientists whose experiments were selected for definition are:

Friedhelm J. Baisch, M.D.
DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine Cologne, Germany

Kenneth M. Baldwin, Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, Calif.

Alain Berthoz, Ph.D.
CNRS/Coll�ge de France
Paris, France

Ingrid M. Block, Ph.D.
DLR German Space Research Institute Cologne, Germany

C. Gunnar Bloomqvist, M.D., Ph.D. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, Texas

Otmar Bock, M.D.
Institute of Space & Terrestrial Science Ontario, Canada

Scott T. Brady, Ph.D.
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, Texas

Barbara Chapman, Ph.D.
California Institute of Technology Pasadena, Calif.

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Gilles R. Clement, Ph.D.
National Center for Scientific Research Paris, France

Bernard Cohen, M.D.
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, N.Y.

Charles A. Czeisler, M.D., Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women's Hospital Cambridge, Mass.

Dwain L. Eckberg, M.D.
Medical College of Virginia
Richmond, Va.

Charles A. Fuller, Ph.D.
University of California, Davis
Davis, Calif.

Stephen M. Highstein, M.D., Ph.D. Washington University
St. Louis, Mo.

Gay R. Holstein, Ph.D.
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, N.Y.

Eberhard R. Horn, Ph.D.
University of Ulm
Ulm, Germany

Bruce G. Jenks, Ph.D.
University of Nijmegen
Nijmegen, Netherlands

Haig S. Keshishian, Ph.D.
Yale University
New Haven, Conn.

Kenneth S. Kosick
Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women's Hospital Cambridge, Mass.

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Bruce L. McNaughton, Ph.D.
University of Arizona
Tucson, Ariz.

Philip C. Njemanze, M.D.
Chidicon Medical Center
Owerri, Nigeria

Richard S. Nowakowski, Ph.D.
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Piscataway, N.J.

Charles M. Oman, Ph.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Mass.

Ottavio Pompeiano, M.D.
University of Pisa
Pisa, Italy

Jaqueline Raymond, Ph.D.
University of Montpellier
Montpellier, France

Danny A. Riley, Ph.D.
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wis.

David Robertson, M.D.
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Nashville, Tenn.

Muriel D. Ross, Ph.D.
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, Calif.

Tsuyoshi Shimizu, M.D., Ph.D.
Fukushima Medical College
Fukushima City, Japan

Tracey J. Shors, Ph.D.
Princeton University
Princeton, N.J.

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Shiro Usui, Ph.D.
Toyohashi University of Technology Aichi, Japan

Kerry Walton, Ph.D.
New York University Medical Center New York, N.Y.

John B. West, M.D., Ph.D.
University of California, San Diego San Diego, Calif.

Michael L. Wiederhold, Ph.D.
University of Texas Health Center at San Antonio San Antonio, Texas

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