01 December 2009

Kris Lehnhardt

Born and raised in Canada, Dr. Kris Lehnhardt completed his Hon. B.Sc. in Bio-Medical Sciences from the University of Guelph in 1999.  He then obtained his M.D. (2003) and Emergency Medicine specialization (2008) from the University of Western Ontario.  He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a Diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine.  Dr. Lehnhardt started his medical career at the London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ontario, Canada and is currently working in Washington, DC.  He is an Assistant Professor and Attending Emergency Physician at the George Washington University where he also serves as the Medical Director for the Emergency Medical Response Group (EMeRG) and as the director of the Wilderness Medicine course.

Dr. Lehnhardt has long had an interest in aerospace medicine with the goal of becoming an astronaut.  He has trained with the flight surgeons at the NASA Kennedy Space Center and at Defence and Research Development Canada.  He has completed the Space Studies Program at the International Space University in Barcelona, Spain (2008).  He was a highly competitive applicant and interviewee in the last Canadian Space Agency astronaut selection campaign, and he was an invited participant at the Canadian Space Exploration Workshop 6.  He currently holds a private pilot license in both Canada and the USA and is a certified open water SCUBA diver.  Dr. Lehnhardt is a Major in the Health Services reserves of the Canadian Air Force.