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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
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B
Committee Biosketches

James A. Pawelczyk, Ph.D. (Chair), is associate professor of physiology, kinesiology, and medicine at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Pawelczyk served as a Payload Specialist on STS-90 Neurolab (April 17 to May 3, 1998). During the 16-day Spacelab flight, the 7-person crew aboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space shuttle Columbia served as both experiment subjects and operators for 26 individual life sciences experiments focusing on the effects of microgravity on the brain and nervous system. Dr. Pawelczyk is a member of the NASA Life Sciences Advisory Subcommittee, Office of Biological and Physical Research, and served as a member of NASA’s ReMaP Task Force in 2002, which was charged with reprioritizing research on the Space Station. Dr. Pawelczyk’s research areas include central neural control of the cardiovascular system and compensatory mechanisms to conditioning and deconditioning. He received his master’s of science degree in physiology from Pennsylvania State University and his doctor of philosophy degree in biology (physiology) from the University of North Texas. He chaired the Integrative and Translational Research Panel for the National Research Council (NRC) Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space and has served on several NRC and Institute of Medicine (IOM) studies. He is a current member of the Space Studies Board and the IOM Standing Committee on Aerospace Medicine and the Medicine of Extreme Environments.

Michelle H. Biros, M.D., M.S., is vice chair for research at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Emergency Medicine. She is the immediate past editor-in-chief of Academic Emergency Medicine. She serves as a peer reviewer for several high-profile medical journals and is a section editor for Rosen’s Clinical Practice of Emergency

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
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Medicine. Dr. Biros has also served as a member of institutional review boards (IRBs) at the University of Minnesota and Hennepin County Medical Center for a total of 15 years. She is the principal investigator for the Minnesota Hub of the Neurological Emergencies Treatment Trials research network, funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Biros founded the Coalition of Acute Resuscitation Researchers that worked with the Food and Drug Administration in the early 1990s to develop the current regulations related to exception from informed consent for emergency research. She recently facilitated a workshop for many federal regulatory agencies to consider IRB options for multicenter trials. She completed her master’s of science in biochemistry and her medical degree at the University of Minnesota.

Divya Chandra, Ph.D., S.M., is a principal technical advisor in aviation human factors at the Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. She holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Michigan (1993) as well as degrees in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (S.M., 1989) and the University of Michigan (B.S., 1987). Dr. Chandra’s research interests include the design and evaluation of flight deck technologies. Her latest project supports the Federal Aviation Administration in developing advanced instrument procedures to support performance-based navigation operations. Her projects involve significant collaboration with the aviation industry, regulators, operators, and manufacturers. Her research has impacted international recommendations for electronic flight bags and aeronautical charts. Before joining the Volpe Center in 1999, Dr. Chandra was a technical staff member in the Air Traffic Surveillance group at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory.

Ian D. Graham, Ph.D., FCAHS, is associate professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Ottawa and senior scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He is also a principal research fellow in translation at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, Australia, and an adjunct associate professor in the School of Nursing at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. From 2006 to 2012 he held the position of vice president of the Knowledge Translation and Public Outreach Portfolio at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). At the CIHR, he was responsible for knowledge translation (the process of research use), part-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
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nerships and citizen engagement, communication and public outreach, and pan-institute affairs and initiatives. Dr. Graham obtained his Ph.D. in medical sociology from McGill University. His research has largely focused on knowledge translation and conducting applied research on strategies to increase implementation of research findings and evidence-based practice. He has also advanced knowledge translation science though the development of two planned action models, the Ottawa Model of Research Use and the Knowledge to Action Model. He has published more than 200 peer reviewed articles and was co-editor of Knowledge Translation in Health Care (2009) and Evaluating the Impact of Implementing Evidence-based Practice (2010).

Chavonda Jacobs-Young, Ph.D., holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in wood and paper science and a B.S. degree in pulp and paper science and technology from North Carolina State University. She also is a graduate of American University’s Executive Leadership in Public Policy Implementation Program. As Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Associate Administrator for National Programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Dr. Jacobs-Young leads the Office of National Programs, which manages the research objectives of the Agency. She also leads the Office of International Research Programs, which is responsible for ARS’s liaisons with its international partners. From April 2010 to May 2012, Dr. Jacobs-Young was the director of the Office of the Chief Scientist in the USDA, where she was responsible for facilitating the coordination of scientific leadership across the Department. From May 2011 to May 2012, Dr. Jacobs-Young served as acting director for USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Prior to these roles, Dr. Jacobs-Young served as a senior policy analyst for agriculture in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. There, she supported the President’s science adviser and others within the Executive Office of the President on a variety of agricultural scientific activities. She worked across the federal government to improve interagency cooperation and collaboration on high-priority scientific issues. From 1995 to 2009, Dr. Jacobs-Young led competitive research programs as a National Program Leader in the USDA National Research Initiative, USDA’s largest competitive program. She administered extramural funding programs in the areas of bio-based products including non-food processing, biotechnology, metabolic engineering, bioenergy production, and forest products research. Dr. Jacobs-Young was a member of the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington in Seattle from 1995 to 2002,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×

where she was assistant professor of paper science and engineering. She was an active researcher and published in the area of biotechnology for the production of bio-based products. Dr. Jacobs-Young’s corporate experience involves working with various corporations including E.I. Dupont De Nemours, Kimberly-Clark Company, the Federal Paper Board, Kraft General Foods, and the Weyerhaeuser Company.

Kathie L. Olsen, Ph.D., is the founder and managing director of ScienceWorks, LLC, a consulting firm that helps people and organizations succeed in science and engineering research, and affiliate professor of neuroscience in the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University. Before founding ScienceWorks, Dr. Olsen served over 20 years in the federal government in a variety of administrative and scientific leadership positions, including the deputy director and chief operating officer of the National Science Foundation (NSF); associate director and deputy director for science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President; and chief scientist for NASA and the acting associate administrator for NASA’s Biological and Physical Research Enterprise. She also was the vice president of International Programs at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, a nonprofit organization. Dr. Olsen earned a B.S. in biology and psychology with honors from Chatham College and a Ph.D. in biology (neuroscience) from the University of California, Irvine. Following her postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Neuroscience at Children’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School, she became an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Medical School, as well as adjunct associate professor in the Department of Microbiology at the George Washington University. Her research on neural and genetic mechanisms underlying the development and expression of behavior was supported by the NIH. She has served on review panels for U.S. federal agencies, including the NIH, NSF, and Department of Defense (DOD); foreign governments; international research institutes; and UNESCO. Dr. Olsen holds numerous awards, including the Norwegian Royal Order of Merit. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association for Women in Science and has been awarded four honorary doctoral degrees.

Terry M. Rauch, Ph.D., currently serves as the director of medical research within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×

Affairs at the DOD. He has responsibility for the Defense Health Program Research and Development Portfolio content. Dr. Rauch has over 30 years of experience in many facets of the military health system and has held numerous senior level positions in the Army and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. As a senior military officer, he served as the Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and as principal advisor to four Assistant Secretaries of Defense for Health Affairs on matters pertaining to biomedical research, development, and acquisition as well as medical products and devices needed to protect U.S. military forces against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. He commanded the U.S. Army Public Health Command-Europe, a scientific and technical organization that provided comprehensive preventive medicine services to garrisoned U.S. Army forces in Europe. Dr. Rauch retired as a Colonel from the U.S. Army on October 1, 2005, and joined the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as a senior principal life scientist. At SAIC, he focused on comprehensive strategic planning and analysis for the Office of the Secretary of Defense on matters relating to Defense biomedical research, development, and acquisition investment strategies and their supporting infrastructure. He left SAIC in March 2009 for his current position. His military awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal (with two oak leaf clusters), Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal (with four oak leaf clusters), Order of Military Medical Merit, Expert Field Medical Badge, Parachutist Badge, and Air Assault Badge.

Sally J. Rockey, Ph.D., is the deputy director for extramural research, leading extramural research activities at the NIH. The Office of Extramural Research (OER), where she also serves as director, is the focal point for policies and guidelines for extramural research administration within the NIH and in partnership with the biomedical research community. Dr. Rockey received her Ph.D. in entomology from Ohio State University, and she has spent the majority of her career in the area of extramural research administration and information technology. She leads or is active on a number of federal committees related to science, research administration, and electronic government and collaborates closely with academic and scientific communities. In 1986 she joined the USDA’s Extramural Research arm, where she quickly rose to the post of deputy administrator for competitive research at the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, overseeing the extramural grants process and portfolio. In 2002, she became the Agency’s chief information

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×

officer, striving to align state-of-the-art information technologies with Departmental goals and objectives. In 2005, Dr. Rockey was appointed to the position of deputy director of OER within the Office of the Director at the NIH to bring her extensive experience in research administration and federal assistance to the biomedical research community. She assumed the role of Acting NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research in 2008, and became permanent in that position in 2010. Dr. Rockey received the Presidential Rank Award in 2004.

Carol E. H. Scott-Conner, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., is professor, Department of Surgery, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City. Dr. Scott-Conner received her B.S. from MIT in electrical engineering in 1969 and worked as an engineer before getting her M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine in 1976. She completed surgical residency at New York University in 1981. She joined the faculty at Marshall University and then moved to the University of Mississippi. During her tenure there she earned a Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Kentucky, and an M.B.A. In 1995 she was appointed professor and head of surgery at the University of Iowa. Dr. Scott-Conner has been active on 22 editorial boards, and has authored more than 200 original papers, abstracts, reviews, and book chapters. She is certified by the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Scott-Conner served as a member of the IOM Committee on Creating a Vision for Space Medicine During Travel Beyond Earth Orbit, the Committee on NASA’s Research on Human Health Risks, and other IOM committees, and she chairs the IOM Standing Committee on Aerospace Medicine and the Medicine of Extreme Environments.

Peter Suedfeld, Ph.D., F.R.S.C., is professor and dean emeritus in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He has conducted laboratory experiments on restricted environmental stimulation, field research in Antarctica and the High Arctic, and interview and archival studies of the psychological impact of exploration, spaceflight, solitary confinement, genocide, and political leadership under uncertainty and stress. Dr. Suedfeld has served on three previous NRC panels. He has chaired the Canadian Antarctic Research Program (1994-1998), the Life Sciences Advisory Committee of the Canadian Space Agency (2005-2007), and the scientific peer review committee for proposals in the areas of behavior, performance, and neuropsychology submitted to NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (2000-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×

2004). He is the current chair of the Johnson Space Center’s Behavioral Health and Performance Standing Review Panel. He is the author or editor of six books and the author more than 280 journal articles and book chapters on the study of human psychology in extreme environments. Among other honors, he has received the U.S. Antarctica Service Medal, the Gold Medal Award of the Canadian Psychological Association for lifetime contributions, and the Zachor Award of the Canadian Parliament. He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (honorary), the International Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and the Explorers Club.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×
Page 35
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×
Page 36
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×
Page 37
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×
Page 38
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×
Page 39
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×
Page 40
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Biosketches." Institute of Medicine. 2012. A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13440.
×
Page 41
A Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Assessment Processes: Letter Report Get This Book
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At the request of NASA, an IOM committee reviewed NASA Human Research Program's (HRP's) Scientific Merit Assessment Processes for directed research. Directed research is commissioned or noncompetitively awarded research that is not competitively solicited because of specific reasons, such as time limitations or highly focused or constrained research topics.

The scientific merit assessment processes have been developed by NASA to evaluate individual directed research tasks in order to ensure the scientific integrity of the HRP's directed research portfolio. The committee examined the HRP's current scientific merit assessment processes and conducted a public workshop to identify best practices among other federal agencies that use various assessment processes for similar types of directed research.

Review of NASA Human Research Program's Scientific Merit Processes: Letter Report finds that the scientific merit assessment process used by the HRP for directed research is scientifically rigorous and is similar to the processes and merit criteria used by many other federal agencies and organizations - including the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, and the United States Department of Agriculture - for comparable types of research. This report also makes recommendations on ways to streamline and bolster the accountability and transparency of NASA's current processes.

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