No Joke - This is the Real Deal

Scott Sheehan - Class of 2004
next to the space shuttle Atlantis
at NASA Kennedy Space Center

I was an NSBRI Summer Intern in 2004, and like Mae Sattam, I had the pleasure of working in the Neuroautonomics lab with Dr. Todd Schlegel. While the majority of interns that year were undergraduate students, myself and one other intern were medical and dental students respectively. I was mildly concerned coming in that this would be a program more suited to undergraduate work, but I really couldn't have been more wrong. NSBRI will go out of their way to make sure you have every opportunity to get as much as you possibly can out of your time at Johnson Space Center (JSC), so the only limit to your productivity will be yourself.

During my internship, I spent the majority of my time re-designing software algorithms used in signal processing and heart rate variability analysis in electrocardiography. As I had significant experience in software engineering, this was a great fit and maximized my productivity during my time there. If you're thinking about being an intern, rest assured that they will find a lab that is a good fit for you, so you can hit the ground running on day one. There's just so much research going on at JSC, you're bound to fit in somewhere.

Based on my work at JSC, I was ultimately offered graduate admission to the Aeronautics and Astronautics department at MIT, which led to a MS in Aerospace Engineering in 2007. I have since finished my medical degree, and am currently serving as a Diagnostic Radiology resident at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, and serving as a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. Also, based in part on my background and previous experience with NASA, I had the opportunity to participate in an Aerospace Medicine Internship at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in May of 2010. While at KSC, I had the opportunity to participate in medical operations though all phases of the mission, from pre-launch through landing, and even got to explore the shuttle cockpit on the launch pad.

The NSBRI Summer Internship program opened a lot of doors for me, and I feel extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to participate. This program is the real deal, so if you work hard and make the most of your time here, the possibilities are truly limitless.

When I Grow Up, I Want To Be...

Rachel Ellman visiting
the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory
Class of 2007

I did my internship with NSBRI the summer after I graduated college because I was having a bit of a quarter-life crisis. I could not decide what I wanted to do with my life – go to graduate school? Medical school? Industry? I knew that I loved space and medicine and wanted to pursue a career that meshed the two. Then, I stumbled on the perfect way to test the waters of Johnson Space Center (JSC) – through the NSBRI Summer Internship.

And I had a blast! My work in the Anthropometry & Biomechanics Facility with Dr. Sudhakar Rajulu was stimulating and challenging. The twice-weekly lecture presentations by JSC scientists was one of the highlights for me. I was able to learn in that one, short summer broadly what everyone was working on in a range of fields from nutrition to radiation to bone. There was never a shortage of tours and talks that allowed us to explore JSC and meet heroes like Gene Kranz and active astronauts. Not to mention the tons of other students that descend on JSC for the summer, with whom there’s plenty of time to explore Houston.

It is largely because of that internship that I am now in my third year of a Ph.D. in the NSBRI-funded Bioastronautics Program within the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology… and I couldn’t be happier. I was so excited by everything that was going on at JSC that I knew I had to make bioastronautics-related research a priority in my career path. Currently, I am investigating the effects of partial gravity on bone and muscle in a mouse model. 

I definitely recommend applying for the internship because it’s a great way to experience JSC, and a rare opportunity to work alongside NASA scientists and make a contribution to the field!