Meet: John B. Charles, Ph.D.

Project Scientist for Human Life Sciences
NASA Johnson Space Center

My Career Journey

As project scientist for human life sciences at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), my job is to oversee all research projects developed for shuttle/Mir flights that use humans as subjects. The Shuttle/Mir program is a series of joint U.S.-Russian missions involving NASA's space shuttle and the Russian space station Mir.

I'm a physiologist and biophysicist by training. I've had this particular job since September 1994. My primary responsibility right now is to provide scientific and technical guidance to researchers working on human life sciences investigations for Shuttle/Mir flights.

I followed a fairly typical career path toward this job. I majored in biophysics at Ohio State University (B.S., 1977), and I earned my doctorate in physiology and biophysics at the University of Kentucky (Ph.D., 1983). In 1983, I moved to Houston to work with NASA and I have been here ever since.

I started out at JSC as a post-doctoral research associate working in the medical research branch. In 1985 I got a "real job" as a cardiovascular physiologist in the biomedical research branch at JSC. I've been involved with cardiovascular research at NASA ever since, overseeing investigations planned for shuttle, Shuttle-Mir and future International Space Station flights. I have been the principal investigator or a collaborator on a number of flight experiments. Since 1992 I've been an adjunct (that is, part-time) faculty member of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

What I like best about my job is that I get to be involved intimately in human spaceflight. And I think it's important work. What I like least about my job is the fact that I have to work in a BIG organization with lots of people who have different needs and desires.

Influences

No one person influenced me to become a space life scientist. But all of my science teachers, and some astronauts as well, inspired me to choose the career path I'm following. I have been interested in spaceflight for most of my life; I have wanted to be an astronaut since I was seven. When I was 12, however, I started wearing glasses. In those days, corrected vision was grounds for disqualification from "astronaut-hood." (It's okay for astronauts to wear glasses these days.)

I remember that in January 1969, right after Christmas vacation, my junior high science teacher, Mr. Pelligrino, welcomed me back from NASA's Apollo 8 mission. He knew that I had been glued to the television for the duration of this flight. That kind of attention might have embarrassed other kids, but it made me glad to know that someone else took me and my interest in space seriously.

Personal Stuff

I was born in Rockdale, Texas (population 4,481) in 1955. When I was 10, I moved with my family to Massena, N.Y. -- the opposite end of the world from Texas! When I was in my last year of high school we moved to Pittsburgh, Pa. I moved to Columbus, Ohio, for undergraduate school and Lexington, Ky. for graduate school. Now I live in Clear Lake, a community near JSC (I live four miles from my office). Houston is nearby and so is Galveston and its beaches.

I am 6'7" (too tall to be an astronaut). I like public speaking, eating Japanese food (and most other types of food, too), and studying the history of human spaceflight. I enjoy jogging and bicycling as well, and I am learning to rollerblade. I also have a variety of other interests -- geography, history, music, and just watching sunsets -- which I hope make me a well-rounded person.

I have a son, Brian, who is seven years old and lives with his mother in Buffalo, N.Y. He likes reading, computers, hockey, soccer, and Chuck E. Cheese, and he comes to visit whenever his school schedule and my work schedule allow. This year I will be taking my son and my mom and dad to see a shuttle launch in Florida! A friend of mine is an astronaut on this mission and he invited us to come watch the launch.

My Plans and Goals

I decided upon a goal early in my life -- to get involved in spaceflight -- and I have spent the rest of my life (so far, at least) trying to accomplish it. Sometimes I still feel like I'm not there yet, but other people have told me they admire my dedication and persistence. I used to believe that some day I would have the chance to fly in space. But the Challenger disaster in 1986, and subsequent events, have convinced me that I will never get the chance to go. The career I have is a pretty good "second-best," however.

In my years at NASA I have flown on the KC-135 during parabolic flights so I know what it is like to be "weightless." I've flown in airliners to Europe and Japan so I've seen some incredible views of Earth from high altitude. The differences between what I've done and seen and what I could experience in space are only a matter of degree.

I hope to keep working, either inside or outside of NASA, to help people explore space. The experience I have gained in working with complex organizations (primarily NASA and the Russian Space Agency) and using complex systems (the shuttle) will be valuable in confronting any challenges that may ahead for me. I hope that someday I might have an important position in NASA, or possibly elsewhere in the government, that would enable me to influence the direction we take in space exploration. Meanwhile, I am doing important work in an interesting place at an interesting time.