Senior Scientist, NASA Johnson Space Center, Exercise Physiology and Countermeasures Laboratory
Jessica Scott is currently Senior Scientist at the Exercise Physiology and Countermeasures Laboratory (NASA Johnson Space Center) in Houston, Texas. When she began her BSc in Kinesiology she was planning to become a physiotherapist; however, her experience in one directed studies class in her third year completed changed her career direction. She discovered a love for research and was eager to explore the underlying physiology of cardiac function during exercise. She received her BSc from the University of Alberta (2003), MSc from UBC (2005), and completed her PhD in Cardiovascular Physiology in 2009. After winning a scholarship to attend a summer session offered by the International Space University (ISU) and attending another summer working as a teaching assistant at ISU in Strasbourg, France, she became interested in the physiological consequences of spaceflight. After graduating, she completed her post-doctoral fellowship in the Exercise Physiology Laboratory at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Since November 2011, she has been a senior scientist at NASA working on understanding how to keep the hearts and muscles of astronauts healthy in space.