Dr. James Bagian – Engineer, Medical Doctor, Astronaut
Four Remarkable things about Dr. James Bagian
First and only person of Armenian descent to have been in space
Earned mechanical engineering and medical degrees
Logged 337 hours in space
1st chief patient safety officer and founding director of the VA National Center for Patient Safety at the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
James Bagian was born in 1952 in Philadelphia. He became interested in the space program when he was 8 years old but thought there was little chance he could ever be an astronaut. He grew up into an enthusiastic man who thrives on challenges. He has completed the Ironman triathlon competition in Hawaii, flown jet aircraft and climbed both Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood. He enjoys bicycling, backpacking, swimming, flying and racquet sports as well as cabinet making and rebuilding cars.
Dr. Bagian finished first in his class at Drexel University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1973 and earned his Medical Degree from Thomas Jefferson University in 1977 while working as a process engineer for the 3M company and then a mechanical engineer for the U.S. Naval Air Test Center in Maryland from 1976 to 1978.
“You are not beaten until you quit and if you don’t compete, how do you expect to win? The name of the game is never to give up.”
In 1976 he applied to be an astronaut but was turned down because of strange readings on his electrocardiogram. His symptoms have since been identified as a sign, in younger men, of extreme fitness. Afterwards he went to work as a flight surgeon and research medical officer at the Johnson Space Center in 1978 while completing studies at the USAF Flight Surgeons School and USAF School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, TX. Dr. Bagian is a USAF surgeon for the 939th Air Rescue Wing. He is a USAF qualified freefall parachutist and holds a private pilot’s license in many different aircraft. His father, a WWII fighter pilot instilled the love of flying in his son.
In 1980 Dr. Bagian applied again to the NASA Astronaut program was admitted along with 18 other candidates. He was part of the planning and provision emergency medical and rescue support for the first six shuttle flights. Following the 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion he dove and supervised the capsule’s recovery from the ocean floor and was one of the leaders of the development of the Space Shuttle Escape System.
Dr. Bagian’s first flight in space was the Discovery, March 13-18, 1989, the first shuttle mission after the Challenger disaster in 1986 in which all crew members died. He conducted a variety of science and medical experiments, one of which was to determine why more than one third of all astronauts develop space sickness, a form of motion sickness. After returning from this flight he said “The main thing is constant enthusiasm for learning – to learn and to strive to whatever you want. There’s no limit to what you can achieve once you set your mind to it.”
““Many important discoveries have occurred through chance discoveries. You need people in space to find the unexpected.””
In his second flight, June 5-14, 1991, he studied how the human body and its various organs and systems respond to microgravity. In addition to the scheduled payload activities, Dr. Bagian was successful in personally devising and implementing repair procedures to malfunctioning experiment hardware which allowed the objectives of the flight to be successfully completed. Altogether he has logged over 337 hours in space and authored numerous scientific papers in the fields of human factors, environmental and aerospace medicine.
He believes there is a strong need for humans to participate in space flights.
After 15 years at NASA Dr. Bagian left to pursue a new journey – engineering improved patient safety solutions. In 1999 he became the first chief patient safety officer and founding director of the VA National Center for Patient Safety at the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs. He is also the founding director of the Center for Health Care Engineering and Patient Safety and a professor in the College of Engineering and the Medical School of the University of Michigan. Lena J. Weiner, Health Leaders Media.
His focus is to create solutions that will make healthcare safer, as well as more effective and efficient for patients.
“To the aspiring Armenians, my advice would be to participate in the competition game and make a difference. Don’t be watchers…be adaptive and participate…never give up.”