Contributor Bio – Lauren Church
Lauren (@LaurenCSpace) is a 4th year medical student at King’s College London, having just finished an intercalated year in which she undertook an MSc in Space Physiology and Health. She is the student representative on the RAeS Aerospace Medicine Group and is part of a student research and STEAM outreach group (@paraboladies). In all that spare time she has (!) she has been helping set up NGAM.
In this blog, Lauren talks about her experience of applying for and attending the Human Space Physiology Training Course hosted by the European Space Agency (ESA) which is a great opportunity for all interested in the field.
ESA’s HUman Space Physiology Training Course – A First-Hand Account
I attended ESA’s Human Space Physiology Training Course in March of 2018, during my second year of University. The course involved a week in Redu, Belgium, staying in a hotel with the other students and spending our days at the European Space Security and Education Centre (ESEC).
My application experience was far from a typical one; I had known about aerospace medicine as a field for about a year, and I reached out to another student at King’s whom I knew was involved in the field. He recommended the course (this was the first time I’d heard of it); I looked it up and I had 3 days until the application closed! So I got to work straight away.
The application involved writing a 500-word abstract on how space affects a physiological system of the body, and how this might affect a possible return to the moon. I chose to write about neuro-sensory changes, space adaptation syndrome and spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS). I got a letter of recommendation from my educational supervisor at King’s and wrote a motivation letter about my reasons for attending. I had very little experience in the field at the time, and I felt like this might limit my chances as I knew there were people who were far more advanced than I was. However ESA has an emphasis on giving places on the course to those who haven’t necessarily had access to many opportunities within the field, so it’s a great chance for people to make their first steps into a really exciting career.
I got an email to say I’d been selected for the course about a month after my application went in; I was sitting in a tutorial about taking neuro histories from patients and I had to step out because I was too excited!
When the time arrived, in March 2018, I coordinated travel with another student from the UK who was also going so we got the same flight together and met up with the other students to get the bus to the hotel.
Across the week we had lectures from world experts in human physiology in space. We learnt about skin cells in microgravity, bone and muscle degradation and exercise countermeasures, spaceflight analogues, space nutrition, and so much more. The course gave a fantastic overview of space physiology and space medicine, and how to get involved in opportunities in Europe. One of my favourite topics was about the effects of microgravity on the cardiovascular system; this is something that’s been further covered in my master’s course and is a key topic of research within space medicine.
The training course opened my eyes to the variety of topics that are encompassed by space physiology; pretty much every field you can imagine in physiological research on Earth has a space counterpart. It’s one of the things I love most about space medicine as a career choice; not only is the field overall so far removed from a “typical” hospital medical career, there’s so much more to choose to specialize in within it!
Another key part of the week was the group project. I worked in a team of 4, presenting on how human and robotic space exploration work together. Other groups presented on “moon babies”, women’s health in space and a variety of other really cool topics. For me, this was the perfect opportunity to begin to work with some of the students more closely; we had 3 different nationalities represented within our group and it was great to develop a real sense of teamwork to produce something we were proud of!
I think back on the course as a pivotal moment for me; it was the thing that truly solidified in my mind that space medicine, and aerospace medicine more broadly, was the path I wanted to pursue. Since then, every experience I have just further assures me that I’ve made the right choice. I made some friends for life; I met Dr Nina Purvis on the course and now we’re Paraboladies team members (@paraboladies on Twitter and Instagram), MSc coursemates and truly great friends. The course was a great place for networking, meeting other students with similar interests and getting a chance to learn from people who truly are the best in the world at what they do.
I’d thoroughly recommend the experience to anyone who’s interested; applications are now open for this year’s iteration of the course! The course will be online this year and spread across 2 weeks; the first week will involve online lectures from experts, with the second week focusing on flexible, remote teamworking for the group projects. Students from ESA member and affiliate countries studying BSc and MSc level degrees are eligible.
A page about the course and applications can be found here:
Application deadline is 10th August!*
I’m happy to be contacted, either on twitter (@LaurenCSpace) or by email (Lauren.church@kcl.ac.uk) if anyone who is considering applying has any questions!
*Apologies for the late notice for this year’s entry. Follow us on Twitter @NextGenAsM to hear early about next year’s course.
matt