A true Canadian hero here on planet Earth, Williams is a renowned scientist, physician, former health care CEO and author with an extensive list of merit awards and honors. He is famous for his compelling down-to-earth approach to achieving peak performance, risk management, environmental stewardship and the future. His presentation is sure to inspire you and help you develop a similar culture in your own business, one where innovation, best practices, fiscal responsibility and customer/patient-centered care improves staff and client satisfaction—and your bottom line.
In June1992 the Canadian Space Agency selected Dr. Dafydd “Dave Williams” out of 5,330 applicants to be an astronaut; less than one year later, with basic training completed, he was appointed manager of the Missions and Space Medicine Group within the Canadian Astronaut program. Among his many assignments was supervising the implementation of operational space medicine activities for the Canadian Astronaut Program Space Unit Life Simulation project. This proved just the start of his long and illustrious space career, that includes becoming:
• Mission Specialist for the Neurolab mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia, where he led prominent life-science experiments
• Director of the Space and Life Sciences Directorate at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, where he became the first non-American to hold a senior management position with NASA
• An aquanaut, so he could participate in the joint NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s NEEMO 1 mission, a training exercise held in Aquarius, the world’s only underwater research lab. This made him the first Canadian to have lived and worked in space and in the ocean.
And this barely covers the outermost sphere of his contributions in space!
