Thais Russomano, MD, PhD

Professor Thais Russomano, an Advisor on the Technical Advisory Council for the Taksha Institute for Space Health and Aging (TISHA), has over 25 years of experience in the fields of Aerospace Medicine, Human Physiology, Biomedical Engineering, and Telemedicine & eHealth, combined with multidisciplinary teaching at both undergraduate and graduate level. Her specialized research interests are in Space Life Sciences, Space Biomedical Engineering, and Telemedicine and eHealth.

Prof. Russomano studied medicine at the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil, specialising in internal and emergency medicine for a number of years. Thais completed a Masters Degree in Aerospace Medicine in 1991 at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, USA, followed by a PhD in Space Physiology at King’s College London in 1998. She founded the Microgravity Centre (MicroG) in 1999 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, which she coordinated for 18 years until 2017, transforming it into a unique and internationally recognised reference centre of Latin America in the study of Human Space Physiology and Space Biomedical Engineering. She is a guest lecturer at Aalto University, Finland, in Space and Design, and Parrkirchen Institute of Technology, European Campus, Germany, contributing to the MSc in Medical Informatics. She is a member of the Mars One Advisory Board, International Relations Director for the UK-based Human Spaceflight Capitalisation Office (HuSCO), and Director of two private companies linked to space life sciences and telehealth – InnovaSpace Consultancy (UK) and the International Space Medicine Consortium (USA).

Russomano is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences (CHAPS), School of Basic & Medical Biosciences, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, contributing to Aviation and Space related Courses, such as the MSc in Space Physiology and Health, for which she is Coordinator of the Space Library Project. In addition, she gives lectures on lung function in space, space analogues and telemedicine & eHealth, and acts as a supervisor and co-supervisor for MSc dissertations and PhD theses.