Skip to main content

WEM X Durham Business School Space Medicine Course

WEM X Durham
Space Medicine Course 2025

17 – 19 July 2025 Durham University Business School

World Extreme Medicine and Durham University Business School logos
A GROUNDBREAKING collaboration between World Extreme Medicine & Durham Business School Department of Management & Marketing

Jointly convened by
Nikita SW Chiu – Associate Professor in Space Innovation & Technology Governance,
Durham University Space Research Centre
Mark Hannaford – Founder of WEM and WEM Space Medicine/ Honorary Associate Professor in Extreme Medicine, Exeter University

This summer, Durham will welcome NASA Astronaut Dr Michael Barratt to the Waterside Building at Durham University Business School for an immersive, once-in-a-lifetime learning experience. A seasoned spaceflight surgeon and an experienced astronaut with three missions under his belt, Dr Barratt will train the next generation of space leaders in a 3-day event, designed to impart fundamental knowledge and transferrable skills from the field of Space Medicine.

Space Medicine is not only relevant to medical practitioners, but also for professionals who would like to learn first-hand how to anticipate, manage, prepared for, and respond to uncertainty in extreme environments with limited resources. Insights from Space Medicine have relevance to understanding risk mitigation, organizational dynamics and behaviours, as well as potentials and limitations associated with technological innovation in risk-averse sectors.

Inspired by perspectives from the fields of Paramedic Sciences and Space Medicine, Dr Nikita Chiu, Associate Professor in Space Innovation & Technology Governance at Durham University Space Research Centre, had recently integrated elements from the health and medical sectors to propose novel experimentations for the European Space Agency’s parastronaut programme. These new perspectives also equipped her with additional tools and skills to continue her work on advancing inclusive innovation for safety enhancement and risk mitigation in critical operations, such as deep sea and space exploration.

We are thrilled to have this opportunity to welcome WEM and Dr Barratt to Durham in July. This will undoubtedly be a rare occasion for cross-fertilization of ideas across knowledge frontiers.

Registration:
https://worldextrememedicine.com/extreme-medicine-courses/space-medicine-course/

For further details, contact Dr Nikita Chiu, event co-convenor and Durham convening lead at sze.w.chiu@durham.ac.uk