ASA Member Named to National Space Biomedical Research Institute External Advisory Council

alph Lydic, Ph.D., Bert LaDu Professor and Associate Chair for Anesthesiology Research at the University of Michigan, has been named to the External Advisory Council for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). Dr. Lydic currently is a member of the ASA Committee on Occupational Health.

The NSBRI, funded by NASA, is a consortium of institutions studying the health risks related to long-duration space flight. The Institute’s External Advisory Council is comprised of leaders in research fields central to the Institute’s mission. Dr. Lydic will advise the NSBRI’s Human Performance Factors, Sleep and Chronobiology Team.

In his laboratory, Dr. Lydic is studying the brain mechanisms that cause opioids, volatile anesthetics and sleep to depress breathing. He has served as a NASA Visiting Scientist and as a member of the National Institutes of Health study section on respiratory and applied physiology.

Dr. Lydic is a past president of the North American Sleep Research Society and has contributed to the scientific efforts of the National Science Foundation and the American Physiological Society. He has served as a consulting editor for the Journal of Applied Physiology and as a scientific advisor for the National Sleep Foundation. Dr. Lydic co-edits a Humana Press book series titled Contemporary Clinical Neuroscience, and he has provided peer review for the National Science Foundation, the National Sleep Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.