Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Dafydd Williams (b.May 16, 1954) is a
Canada|Canadian astronaut.  He has been on one
List of space shuttle missions|space shuttle
mission.

He was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and is
married to Cathy Fraser of Pointe-Claire, Quebec.
They have a son and a daughter. Dr. Williams
enjoys aviation|flying, scuba diving, hiking,
sailing, kayaking, canoeing, downhill and
cross-country skiing. 

He attended high school in Beaconsfield, Quebec
and earned a B.Sc. in biology from McGill
University, Montreal, in 1976, a master of science
degree in physiology, doctor of medicine, and
master of surgery degrees from McGill University,
Montreal, in 1983. He completed a residency in
family practice in the faculty of medicine,
University of Ottawa, in 1985 and obtained
fellowship in emergency medicine from the Royal
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada,
following completion of a residency in emergency
medicine at the University of Toronto, in 1988.

Dr. Williams received postgraduate training in
advanced invertebrate physiology at the Friday
Harbour Laboratories, University of Washington,
Seattle, Washington. Subsequently, his interests
switched to vertebrate neurophysiology when, for
his master's thesis, he became involved in basic
science research on the role of adrenal steroid
hormones in modifying the activity of regions
within the central nervous system involved in the
regulation of sleep-wake cycles. While working in
the Neurophysiological Laboratories at the Allan
Memorial Institute for Psychiatry, he assisted in
clinical studies of slow wave potentials within
the central nervous system.

His clinical research in emergency medicine has
included studies evaluating the initial training
and skill retention of cardiopulmonary
resuscitation skills, patient survival from
out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the early
identification of Physical trauma|trauma patients
at high risk, and the efficacy of tetanus
immunization in the elderly.

In 1988 he became an emergency physician with the
department of emergency services at Sunnybrook
Health Science Centre as well as a lecturer with
the Department of Surgery at the University of
Toronto. He served as a member of the Air
Ambulance Utilization Committee with the Ontario
Ministry of Health both as an academic emergency
physician and later as a representative of
community emergency physicians. In addition, he
has trained ambulance attendants, paramedics,
nurses, residents, and practicing physicians in
cardiac and trauma resuscitation as a course
director in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
with the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation and
in Advanced Trauma Life Support with the American
College of Surgeons.

From 1989 to 1990, he served as an emergency
physician with the Emergency Associates of
Kitchener, Ontario|Kitchener-Waterloo,
Ontario|Waterloo and as Medical Director of the
Westmount Urgent Care Clinic. In 1990 he returned
to Sunnybrook as Medical Director of the ACLS
program and coordinator of postgraduate training
in emergency medicine. Subsequently, he became the
Acting Director of the Department of Emergency
Services at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre,
Assistant Professor of Surgery, University of
Toronto, and Assistant Professor of Medicine,
University of Toronto.

Dr. Williams was selected by the Canadian Space
Agency in June 1992. He completed basic training
and in May 1993 was appointed manager of the
missions and space medicine Group within the
astronaut program. His collateral duty assignments
have included supervising the implementation of
operational space medicine activities within the
astronaut program and the coordination of the
Canadian Astronaut Program Space Unit Life
Simulation (CAPSULS) Project. In February 1994 he
participated in a 7-day space mission simulation.
During this CAPSULS Project he was the Principal
Investigator of a study to evaluate the initial
training and retention of resuscitation skills by
non-medical astronauts. He was also assigned as
one of the crewmembers and acted as the crew
medical officer.

He remains active in life science and space
medicine research, both as a Principal
Investigator and as a Co-Investigator. He has
recently been appointed as an Assistant Professor
of Surgery, McGill University, and is
participating in clinical activities at St. Mary's
Hospital and at the Montreal General Hospital.

===NASA experience===
In January 1995, Dr. Williams was selected to join
the 1995 international class of NASA mission
specialist astronaut candidates. He reported to
the Johnson Space Center in March 1995 and
completed training and evaluation in May 1996. On
completing basic training, he was assigned to work
technical issues for the payloads/habitability
branch of the astronaut office.

Dr. Williams was mission specialist 3 on STS-90
Neurolab (April 17 to May 3, 1998). During the
16-day Spacelab flight, the seven-person crew
aboard space shuttle Columbia served as both
experiment subjects and operators for 26
individual life science experiments focusing on
the effects of microgravity on the brain and
nervous system. The STS-90 flight orbited the
Earth 256 times, covered 6.3 million miles, and
logged him over 381 hours in space.

From July 1998 to November 2002, Dr. Williams
served as director of the space and life sciences
directorate with responsibility for research in
both physical and biomedical space sciences at
JSC. Overall crew medical safety was one of his
principal concerns, in addition to flight medical
operations and JSC occupational and environmental
health. His programs were directed toward
protecting astronauts from the hazards of the
space environment, including space radiation and
microgravity, in addition to maintaining their
medical, physical, and psychological well-being
while aloft and on return to Earth. His other
oversight responsibilities were in the fields of
telemedicine, 3-D tissue culture/regeneration in
microgravity, the curatorial management of
extraterrestrial materials, and of qualifying
humans for very long space journeys and ensuring
their safe return to Earth.

Dr. Williams is assigned to the crew of STS-118,
an assembly mission to the International Space
Station.

He is a member of the College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Ontario, the Ontario Medical
Association, the College of Family Physicians of
Canada, the Royal College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Canada, the Canadian Association of
Emergency Physicians, the Aerospace Medical
Association, the Canadian Society for Aerospace
Medicine, and the Canadian Aeronautics and Space
Institute. Past affiliations include the Society
for Neuroscience, the New York Academy of Science,
and the Montreal Physiological Society.

Williams was awarded the Commonwealth Certificate
of Thanks in 1973 and the Commonwealth Recognition
Award (1975) for his contribution to the Royal
Life Saving Society of Canada. Academic awards
include the A.S. Hill Bursary, McGill University,
in 1980; the Walter Hoare Bursary, McGill
University, in 1981; and the J.W. McConnell Award,
McGill University, from 1981 to 1983. He was named
Faculty Scholar in 1982 and University Scholar in
1983 by the faculty of medicine at McGill
University. In 1983, he also received the
psychiatry prize and the Wood Gold Medal from the
Faculty of Medicine and was named on the dean's
honor list by the physiology department, at McGill
University, for his postgraduate research. He was
twice awarded the second prize for his
participation in the University of Toronto
Emergency Medicine Research Papers Program, in
1986 and 1988, and received top honors in that
competition in 1987.

==External links==
*
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/williams.htm
l Article source at NASA.