2022 AMSRO Award Recipients

Congratulations to the 2022 AMSRO Award Recipients

DR. JEFF MYERS & Dr. MARK CAMPBELL'S AMSRO OUTSTANDING MENTORSHIP AWARD This award is presented to one individual who has gone above and beyond to inspire, guide, and support medical students and residents within the field of Aerospace Medicine.

Awarded to: William Valencia, MD, MPH

AMSRO's ANITA MANTRI, PHD MEMORIAL AWARD This award, in honor of our late past president, seeks to recognize an AMSRO Member who exhibits passion for service, engagement in the aerospace medicine community, and a drive to facilitate inclusivity and mentorship within the field. Awarded to: Captain Lisa McNamee, MBBS, MS

AMSRO SCIENTIFIC PAPER AWARD Awarded to: Major James L. Mitchell, MRCP, PhD

A Randomized Controlled, Trial of the GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Exenatide in Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension

University of Birmingham

AMSRO CHAPTER OF THE YEAR AWARD Awarded to: Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS)

2022 Chapter Leadership

President: Kevin Beeman-Brown
VP of Events: Isaac Houston
VP of Guest Speakers: Ian McCullough
AMSRO Liaison: Conor McGuire
Public Affairs: Zachary Mattice
Treasurer: Carl Failing
Faculty Advisor: (COL) Dr. Susan Fondy

AMSRO DIVERSITY AWARD Awarded to: Ahmed Baraka, BPharmacy

Read the "What has Diversity Meant in Your Life Essay" below

Biography:

Ahmed is the Head of COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic, at Shoubrakhit General Hospital, a Consultant of Space Life Science at the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA), a clinical pharmacist and (part-time) hospital manager at Dr. Ahmed Abdul Aziz hospital, Alexandria, Egypt, and a former teaching associate in the space sciences department at the International Space University (ISU) in Granada, Spain. Ahmed is doing his master's degree in biotechnology, and he is extremely interested in genetics, neuroscience, space neuroscience, and space sciences. Currently, Ahmed is serving as the regional coordinator for the Middle East for the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) and a former regional communications manager for the Middle East, a member of the national steering committee for the upcoming AMADEE mission in Egypt (Mars analog mission), a member of the technical committee for the first Egyptian Lunar Mission, a member of The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Space Life Sciences Committee, the chair of the International Outreach Committee for the Aerospace Medicine Student & Resident Organization (AMSRO), and the founder and president of the AMSRO regional chapter in Alexandria, Egypt. Additionally, Ahmed is working on some great projects mostly dedicated to space medicine and human space exploration such as the space medicine program for Egypt in coordination with the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) and the French Space Agency (CNES), building the first Mars/Moon analog station in the Western Desert of Egypt in coordination with EgSA and the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF), and a roadmap to enable Africa to have sustainable human spaceflights by 2030. In 2019, he received the African Space Leaders Award from the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), in recognition of these efforts. As well as in 2021, he has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 Space Medicine Association International Scholarship, has been selected to be one of the IAF Emerging Space Leaders Grant recipients for 2021, and recently he has been classified in the African Space Industry Top 10 Under-30 Class of 2021. Besides these activities, Ahmed is an active member of many space professional organizations like the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA), Aerospace Medicine Student and Resident Organization (AMSRO), the Space Medicine Association (SMA), the Planetary Society, the Mars Society, the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), the Moon Village Association (MVA), Society for Neuroscience, the Egyptian Pharmacist Syndicate, and Alexandria Syndicate of Pharmacists.

Essay: What has Diversity Meant in Your Life

Early in my childhood I was raised in a part of the world filled with great political tensions and conflicts. Once I started watching the TV with my parents, I started seeing in the news these innocent children like me being killed or crying as they lost their loved ones because of wars. Their innocent tears depressed me and I started looking up to the sky and to the moon in the night seeing that it’s the only place in which there are no wars or destructions and from here I had this childhood dream and passion to make the humanity a multi-planetary species and to study neuroscience to know why some of us kill the others and destroy our planet and hoping before passing away to make this world a more peaceful one for the next generations.

In order to reach my goals, I have to study and work in a multi-disciplinary environment. I chose to study clinical pharmacy, where I studied a broad range of subjects from basic science to clinical practice. As there is not an opportunity for advanced space research in my country, I have been studying space sciences on my own. Nowadays, I am an active member of the Society for Neuroscience, the Egyptian Pharmacist Syndicate, the Alexandria Syndicate of Pharmacists, The Planetary Society, Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA), Space Medicine Association (SMA), our organization Aerospace Medicine Student and Resident Organization (AMSRO), and the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC).

I have been advocating and working for the presence of space medicine research in Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa for years. Through working on the establishment of the Egyptian, the Arabic, and the African Space Medicine Associations. I’ve visited many places from Cairo to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to convince the decision-makers in the Egyptian Space Agency and African Union Commission to consider space medicine in the African Space Agency strategy. I’ve also attended the COPUOS meetings in Vienna to connect and form international allies that can help me pursue this dream. Recently, I have started discussions with Bahrain National Space Science Agency (NSSA) and Qatar foundation to have infrastructure that can support running space medicine activities in both countries. Through my dedication I have started seeing the budding of the seeds I’ve sowed. The Egyptian space medicine program has become a reality and we now have the tele-medicine program being implemented in our communities.

ASAMS/AMSRO CHARLES A. BERRY MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

Awarded to: Shilpi Ganguly, MS, MS3