Space: The Final Frontier for Physiology
Dr. Virginia Wotring
Virginia Wotring has been using her training in biochemistry (BS, Florida State University), physiology & pharmacology (PhD, Saint Louis University, USA) to study the actions of medications used during spaceflight missions. This means first studying the effects of the spaceflight environment on physiology and then turning to potential spaceflight-induced changes in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Virginia has been doing this during positions at Johnson Space Center and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston TX, and now at the International Space University in Strasbourg France. She had held management positions in the past, most recently as Deputy Director and Chief Scientist of the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health, however she prefers doing science to managing it.