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| EVA on Devon Island |
Brian Shiro's lifelong ambition is to explore space and in doing so help improve life on Earth. He is a veteran of numerous geophysical field expeditions to remote locations including Antarctica, Alaska, Canada, and various tropical Pacific islands. Brian’s diverse background includes jobs working in upper atmosphere physics, carbon nanotubes, satellite radar mapping, geochemistry, glaciology, geodesy, biophysics, impact cratering, seafloor mapping, and high performance computing. He has experience working at three NASA centers and served as the principal investigator for a Mars Geophysical Lander mission proposal to NASA in 2003. Brian has also completed two analog Mars missions where he logged nearly 54 hours on 20 extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) to conduct field science wearing mock spacesuits. These included a 30-day expedition to the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (
FMARS) on Devon Island, Canada in 2009 and a 14-day expedition to the Mars Desert Research Station (
MDRS) in Utah in 2010, where he served as Commander of the
6-member crew. In 2009, he made it to the "Highly Qualified" level (top 3-12%) of NASA's astronaut selection process.
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| Brian tries the SpaceShipOne simulator at UND. |
Brian holds a B.A. with triple majors in
Integrated Science,
Geology, and
Physics from
Northwestern University and a M.A. in
Earth and Planetary Sciences from
Washington University in St. Louis. While working on his Ph.D., he left academia to accept a position as Geophysicist with
NOAA at the
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. His high-pressure job is regularly featured by news media outlets like
CNN and
NPR. In summer 2005, Brian attended the International Space University (
ISU) Summer Session in Vancouver, Canada, where his concentration was space policy and law. The following year he gave an invited presentation on his ISU team's work involving global wildfire forecasting to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (
UNCOPUOS) in Vienna, Austria. In 2010, Brian completed a M.S. in Space Studies from the
University of North Dakota with a specialty in human missions to Mars. He plans to earn his private pilot certificate and resume his Ph.D. studies in 2011.
Brian is a runner, SCUBA diver, aviation enthusiast, environmentalist, Eagle Scout, and outdoor extreme sports enthusiast. He has completed six marathons, including the Boston Marathon, with a personal best time of 3:02. Brian wishes he lived in the mountains where he could maintain his mountaineering, skiing, and river kayaking skills but instead settles for living in Hawaii with his wife and two young children. He blogs about his experiences towards becoming an astronaut at
http://www.astronautforhire.com/.
