Serena Auñón-Chancellor

Serena Auñón-Chancellor is an American physician, engineer and NASA astronaut, born on April 9, 1976, who joined the two professions because she was drawn both to problem solving and to caring for people. She trained in electrical engineering at George Washington University, earned her medical degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2001 and a public health degree at the University of Texas Medical Branch in 2006, and completed an internal medicine residency followed by a year as chief resident and an aerospace medicine residency. She is board certified in internal medicine and aerospace medicine. NASA hired her as a flight surgeon in 2006, and she was selected as an astronaut candidate in 2009. In 2018 she spent 196 days aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer on Expeditions 56 and 57. Afterwards she moved into a management role covering medical issues for station, lunar and exploration-class missions, and she teaches residents and medical students. In 2020 she published a case report on the treatment of deep vein thrombosis in orbit.