Dr. Richard Scheuring – NESC Academy Biography

Dr. Richard Scheuring grew up in Chicago, Illinois, focused on track and field, and dreamed of becoming an Olympic athlete. This drive earned him an athletic scholarship to Eastern Illinois University where he earned bachelor of arts in psychology and competed in a decathlon. But after three-and-a-half years of intense competition and an unfortunate series of devastating injuries, his dream to compete in the Olympics was over. Scheuring took his Olympic-sized desire and passion and focused on becoming a doctor of osteopathic medicine at Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. He then ran his own family practice, sports medicine clinic in Illinois for several years before learning of the aerospace medicine profession. Realizing he could possibly combine his childhood love for space exploration with his medical career, Scheuring completed an aerospace medicine residency and earned a master of science in aerospace medicine at Wright State University. After the September 11 attacks, Scheuring signed up to be a U.S. Army Reserve flight surgeon. He subsequently served in Iraq as a battalion flight surgeon for the 171st General Support Aviation Battalion (GSAB) in Camp Taji, just north of Baghdad where he had over 100 hours of combat flying. Later he discovered the required training for this was the final puzzle piece needed to reach his dream job, serving as a NASA flight surgeon at JSC. As of 2012, he was serving as the team lead for musculoskeletal-sports medicine and rehabilitation at NASA.

Last updated September 12, 2012