Biography

Dr. Clark served 26 years on active duty with the U.S. Navy, and qualified as a Naval Flight Officer, Naval Flight Surgeon, Navy Diver, U.S. Army parachutist and Special Forces Military Freefall Parachutist. His assignments including heading a research centrifuge facility at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Lab, and the Neurology and Hyperbaric Medicine divisions at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute where he treated diving and altitude decompression sickness. He was principal investigator on the project that developed the first Reduced Oxygen Breathing Device and studied neurologic effects of divers exposed to high intensity low frequency sonar. During Operation Desert Storm he was the 3rd Marine Air Wing Special Projects Officer responsible for the Air Wing Chem/Bio Defense Plan and the Sustained Operations Plan. He flew combat medical evacuation missions and was in the first air element into Kuwait City with the Marine Corps. He ran the aeromedical department at Marine Aviation Weapons & Tactics Squadron One, and participated in Marine Recon and ANGLICO fire control teams’ High Altitude parachute jumps.

Dr. Clark worked at NASA from 1997 to 2005, was a Space Shuttle Crew Surgeon on six shuttle missions, Chief of the Medical Operations Branch and an FAA Aeromedical Examiner (AME). He was a Member of the NASA Columbia Spacecraft Survival Investigation Team from 2004 to 2007 and a Member of the NASA Constellation Program EVA Systems Project Office Standing Review Board from 2007 to 2010. He was the Space Medicine Advisor for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute from 2005 to 2017. In 2008 he was an expedition physician supporting the Haughton Mars Project on Devon Island in the high Canadian Arctic. He was Chief Medical Officer for the orbital commercial space company Excalibur Almaz from 2007 to 2012, and Chief Medical Officer for the Inspiration Mars Foundation from 2013 to 2018. Dr. Clark was Medical Director of the Red Bull Stratos Project, a manned stratospheric balloon freefall parachute flight test program, which on 14 October 2012 successfully accomplished the highest stratospheric freefall parachute jump (highest exit altitude) from 127,852 feet, achieving human supersonic flight (Mach 1.25) without a drogue chute at 843 miles per hour. In 2012 Dr. Clark joined the StratEx Space Dive project as the lead flight surgeon and medical advisor, and this project set a new high altitude exit freefall record of 135,890 feet reaching Mach 1.22/ 822 miles per hour in 2014. From 2017 to 2020 he was on the Navy Clinical Case Review Panel to address the On Board Oxygen Generator (OBOGS) Physiologic Episodes. He was Safety Officer for the Alpha 5 Jump in 2023 which set a 5 way formation record jump from 38K feet. He has been a consultant for Virgin Galactic, Heinlein Prize Trust, Paragon Space Development Corp, Space Perspectives, and SpaceX.

He currently works for JAG Human Performance LLC and Operator Solutions commercial space rescue company which are Florida based companies. He is a Partner and Co-Founder of C2 Space Tech which provided technical and operational support to various aerospace and undersea activities. Dr. Clark is board certified in Neurology and Aerospace Medicine and is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association. Recreational activities include scuba diving, parachuting, flying aircraft, and spending time in the wilderness. His professional interests focus on the neurologic effects of extreme environments, aircraft and spacecraft crew survivability and operational resilience for teams in high consequence environments.