Manager for Nutritional Biochemistry
NASA
Houston, Texas
Dr. Smith leads the Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory at the NASA Johnson Space Center. This group is charged with keeping crews healthy with respect to nutrition, including using nutrition as a means to optimize astronaut health and safety. This includes ground-based and spaceflight research to understand how nutrition can mitigate the negative effects of spaceflight.
He has led research projects that were flown on the Space Shuttle, the Russian space station Mir, and ongoing research on the International Space Station. He has led several ground-based research projects, including studies of vitamin D in Antarctica, studies of crews living on the bottom of the ocean, and test subjects spending weeks-to-months in bed. While Smith’s research centers on the role of nutrition in astronaut health, specific studies have evaluated dietary impact on bone loss in astronauts, and the role of vitamin biochemistry in astronaut ocular changes. His team identified that these ocular changes were genetically predisposed.
Smith is a member of the American Society for Nutrition, the American Physiological Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. Dr. Smith received a B.S. in Biology, and a Ph.D. in Nutrition, both from the Pennsylvania State University.
I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Thursday, October 13, 2022
2:54 PM – 3:02 PM US CDT
Thursday, October 13, 2022
7:20 PM – 7:45 PM US CDT