Astronaut David Williams feels people can learn more from NASA than just how to launch a person into space.
Dr. Williams, a former emergency room physician turned astronaut, is coming to Queen’s University to talk about how technology is developed by NASA and how those innovative principles should be applied to foster more creativity when developing biomedical technology. He will present the talk as part of the Distinguished Seminar Series hosted by the Queen’s School of Computing.
“It’s not every day Queen’s gets to host an astronaut,” says Queen’s associate computer science professor Gabor Fichtinger, who collaborates with Dr. Williams in forming a Canadian national centre for medical robotics, “The talk will be accessible all sorts of audiences, presented from the unique interdisciplinary perspective of an emergency room doctor turned astronaut.”
Dr. Williams was the director of the Department of Emergency Services at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre until June 1992 when he was one of four successful astronaut candidates picked by the Canadian Space Agency. He is currently the director of the McMaster Centre for Medical Robotics.
The talk takes place Thursday January 21 from 2:30 to 3:30 pm in Kingston Hall 201 and is open to anyone who wants to hear about NASA’s approach to translational medical technology development.