National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 77058
Biographical Data

THOMAS H. MARSHBURN, M.D.
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:   Born August 29, 1960, in Statesville, North Carolina.  Married to the former Ann M. Sanders.  They have one daughter.  Tom has private, instrument, aerobatic, and commercial pilot’s licenses.  He enjoys backpacking and mountain climbing, and in 1980 backpacked from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific Crest Trail.  Tom also enjoys family activities, swimming, scuba diving, snowboarding, playing guitar, and reading. 

EDUCATION:  Graduated from Henderson High School, Atlanta, Georgia, in 1978; received a bachelor of science degree in physics from Davidson College, North Carolina in 1982; a masters in engineering physics from the University of Virginia in 1984; a doctorate of medicine degree from Wake Forest University in 1989; and a masters in medical science from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in 1997.

ORGANIZATIONS:  Aerospace Medical Association; American Academy of Emergency Medicine; Aircraft Owners and Pilot’s Association.

SPECIAL HONORS:  NASA Superior Achievement Award, 1998.  Space and Life Sciences Division Special Space flight Achievement Award, 2003 and 2004.  Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Superior Achievement Award, January 2004.

EXPERIENCE:  After completing medical school, Dr. Marshburn trained in emergency medicine at the St. Vincent Hospitals emergency medicine program in Toledo, Ohio, where he also worked as a Life Flight physician.   In 1992, after three years of training, he was certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine.  He then worked as an emergency physician in Seattle, Washington, before being accepted into the first class of the NASA/UTMB Space Medicine Fellowship in Galveston, Texas.  After completing the fellowship in 1995, he worked as an emergency physician in area hospitals in Houston, Texas, and at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.  During this time he also worked as an attending for the emergency medicine residency for the University of Texas-Houston.

NASA EXPERIENCE:  Dr. Marshburn came to NASA JSC in November 1994 as a flight surgeon, assigned to Space Shuttle Medical Operations and to the joint US/Russian Space Program.  From February 1996 to May 1997 he served as a flight surgeon for NASA personnel deployed to the Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia, followed by work in the Center for Flight Control in Carole, Russia in support of the NASA 4 Expedition to the Mir Space Station.  From July 1997 to August 1998 he was co-chair of medical operations for the Shuttle/Mir Space Program.  From 1998 to 2000, he was deputy flight surgeon for Neuronal (STS-98) and lead flight surgeon for the STS-101 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). 

After spending 10 months as a NASA Representative to the Harvard / MIT Smart Medical Systems Team of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, he worked as the lead flight surgeon for Expedition 7 to the ISS in 2003, supporting from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Houston. 

During this time until his selection, he served as Medical Operations Lead for the ISS.  Activities included development of the biomedical training program for flight surgeons and astronaut crew medical officers, and managing the ISS Health Maintenance System.

Selected by NASA in May 2004.  In February 2006 he completed Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training.  Completion of this initial training qualified him for various technical assignments within the Astronaut Office and future flight assignment as a mission specialist.  Dr. Marshburn is currently assigned to the crew of STS-127, ISS Assembly Mission 2J/A, that will deliver the Japanese-built Exposed Facility (JEM-EF) and the Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section (ELM-ES) to the International Space Station in July 2009.

JULY 2009