Marc Shepanek

Dr. Shepanek began working for NASA in 1987 in the Office of Exploration, supporting the development of mission scenarios to the Moon and Mars as well as managing a scientific and innovation outreach awards program. He moved to the Office of Life and Microgravity Science and Applications (OLMSA) to become the Deputy Program Manager for Human Factors and the Program Scientist for small payloads. He moved to the Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (OCHMO) to lead Agency support for Aerospace Medicine for almost 20 years and is currently the OCHMO lead for Extreme Environments and Analogs.

He has received numerous superior performance awards and citations including a Stennis Space Center (SSC) group award for service after Hurricane Katrina; John Space Center (JSC) group award for scientific work on sex and gender; the NASA Manned Flight Awareness Award; NASA group achievement awards for Agency capability leadership teams, Organizational Safety Assessment, and Human Factors; the Antarctic Service Medal; and the NASA Cooperative External Achievement Award.

Also, he has served as the Deputy Chief Officer of the Standing Scientific Group on Life Sciences and U.S. representative to the Joint Expert Group on Human Biology and Medicine for the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Further, he has been a CoI for behavioral and medical research for the United States Antarctic Program and manages research efforts between NASA and Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE). He is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.