9 January 2003 -- A free public lecture titled "What Price a Martian? Human Limits to Exploring the Red Planet" will be given on 15 February 2003 by Jim Pawelczyk, an assistant professor of physiology and kinesiology at Penn State and a former NASA astronaut. The lecture is the fourth of six consecutive Saturday-morning lectures during the 2003 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science. The series this year, titled "Beyond Earth: Living on Other Worlds," is designed to be a free minicourse for the enjoyment and education of residents in Central Pennsylvania communities. The lectures take place from 11:00 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park Campus.

Drawing on both his research and his experience with NASA, Pawelczyk will answer the question of whether technology can overcome the limitations of human physiology to enable long-term habitation on nearby planets. His research focuses on the dynamic regulation of blood pressure and how atrophy caused by disuse affects the regulation of blood pressure. "Problems with moment-to-moment regulation of blood pressure lead to an inability to maintain adequate blood flow to the brain, known as orthostatic intolerance, which affects as many as 500,000 Americans," Pawelczyk explains. "This condition is observed routinely following spaceflight."

Pawelczyk flew aboard the 90th mission of the space shuttle in April and May of 1998; logging 16 days and 6.4 million miles in space; circling the Earth 256 times; and conducting neuroscience experiments that addressed changes in the development of the nervous system, balance, blood-pressure regulation, sleep, and control of movement during spaceflight.

In addition to being chosen by NASA to be an astronaut, Pawelczyk has received many other honors and awards, including a NASA Young Investigator Award in 1994, the NASA Spaceflight Medal in 1998, an honorary Doctorate in Public Service from the University of North Texas Health Science Center in 1999, and the President's Award for Excellence in Academic Integration from Penn State in 2001. He served in 2002 as a member of the Research Maximization and Prioritization (ReMaP) Task Force, which is chartered by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keef to maximize the scientific utility and productivity of the International Space Station.

Pawelczyk earned B.A. degrees in biology and psychology at the University of Rochester in 1982, a M.S. degree in physiology at Penn State in 1985, and a Ph.D. degree in biology for his study of physiology at the University of North Texas in 1989. Subsequently, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, then joined the faculty there as an assistant professor in cardiology and bioengineering. In that capacity, he served as the director of the Autonomic and Exercise Physiology Laboratories and as a founding member of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, a clinical collaboration between the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. In 1995, he joined the faculty of the Noll Physiological Research Center and the Department of Kinesiology at Penn State in the College of Health and Human Development. He currently serves as interim assistant director of the Noll Physiological Research Center.

The remaining events in the 2003 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science include:

• "Settling the Moon: The Challenges and the Possible Rewards" on 22 February by Jim Burke, an aeronautical engineer with the the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and an advisor to the Planetary Society; and
  
• "Mars Direct: Humans to the Red Planet within a Decade" on 1 March by Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society.
  

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science. Additional financial support for the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science is provided by Pfizer Inc.

Thomas Building is located at the intersection of Pollock and Shortlidge Roads on the Penn State University Park Campus. Free parking is available in the Eisenhower Parking Deck behind Eisenhower Auditorium on Shortlidge Road. For more information or access assistance, contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Public Information by telephone at (814) 863-8453, by e-mail at science@psu.edu, or at <http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/frontiers/>

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