Biography

Dr. Jeff Myers served as a Flight Surgeon at Kennedy Space Center during the Space Shuttle era, providing Emergency Medical coverage during launch and landing. After the Shuttle program ended, he became Medical Director for the U.S. Antarctic Program under Raytheon Polar and later served as interim Medical Director for the Marshall Islands program under the Department of Energy. He also completed a 10-year term as a Toxicologist on the Gulf War Veterans Illness Research Integration Panel while working at the VA. Dr. Myers developed a Spaceflight Physiology course for Florida Institute of Technology to help engineers understand physiological effects of spaceflight and has been teaching it for 30 years.

He returned to Kennedy Space Center in 2020, coinciding with the revival of U.S.-launched human spaceflight, and has happily remained there since. Following COVID, he helped restart a medical education program, serving as preceptor and curriculum developer. He is deeply interested in expanding training elements to interface with Aerospace Medicine residency programs.

Dr. Myers has always been passionate about Space, Astronomy, and science. At age 12, he flew an airplane for the first time, with an instructor present, and was hooked. He earned a Bachelor’s in Chemistry from the University of Evansville in just two years, graduating summa cum laude, and went on to Indiana University School of Medicine with highest distinction, participating in the Surgery Honors and Medical Research Honors programs. His research focused on liver metabolism changes due to alcohol consumption. He also completed an external rotation at the NIH’s National Cancer Institute, where he worked on the team that discovered Interleukin-2 under Dr. Steve Rosenberg.

He completed his General Surgery residency at the original Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where he became a NASA Astronaut finalist. Though not selected, he discovered the Aerospace Medicine residency at Wright State University, completed the program, and began work at Kennedy Space Center. During residency, he joined the Air Force as a Flight Surgeon and served under now-retired General Steve Ritchey, the first Vietnam War ace. While at Kennedy, he was deployed during the first Gulf War, serving as a Flight Surgeon and Triage Officer.

His recent research interests include Planetary Protection, monitoring microbial species to prevent contamination of other worlds and vice versa, and he has presented on this topic at international Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) meetings. Dr. Myers also mentors students in UCF’s FIRE program and is currently guiding a new round of research projects.