Dr. Scott E. Parazynski, a veteran of five Space Shuttle missions, physician, explorer and entrepreneur, will give the inaugural TuscTalks Distinguished Lecture Series presented by Ferris Financial, LLC at 7:30 p.m. on October 12 in the Performing Arts Center at Kent State University at Tuscarawas.
The new lecture series was established to bring major thinkers and players in the world of politics, art, celebrity, sports and science to campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Dr. Parazynski is a member of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame and has lived and traveled around the world. A graduate of Stanford University and Stanford Medical School, he went on to train at Harvard and in Denver for a career in emergency medicine and trauma before being selected to join NASA’s Astronaut Corps in 1992. Over the course of five missions in space, Dr. Parazynski conducted seven spacewalks, including the first joint U.S.-Russian spacewalk while docked to the Russian space station, Mir and a solar array repair on mission STS-120, regarded as one of the most challenging and dangerous ever performed. He has been published numerous times in the field of space physiology with particular expertise in human adaptation to stressful environments.
“To have a veteran of five Space Shuttle flights and seven spacewalks and the only person to have both flown in space and summited Mount Everest, we are thrilled to have Dr. Parazynski launch our TuscTalks lecture series,” said Dr. Brad Bielski, dean and chief administrative officer of Kent State Tuscarawas. “This is a dramatic opportunity for the students studying at Kent Tuscarawas and for the residents in the Tuscarawas County region to join us for a mission of summits, space and speed!”
In addition to his medical and interplanetary pursuits, Dr. Parazynski is a lifelong scuba diver and accomplished mountaineer, having climbed to the summit of the world’s highest peak on Mt. Everest. He’s also a prolific inventor and entrepreneur, serving on the boards of several companies and founding several others. His new memoir, The Sky Below: A True Story of Summits, Space, and Speed, is now available for purchase on Amazon.com.
Ticket are required for the free event and are now available at the Performing Arts Center box office or by calling 330.308.6400. The box office is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For more information about the TuscTalks Distinguished Lecture Series presented by Ferris Financial, LLC, contact Chad Conrad at 330.308.7445 or cconra1@kent.edu.
Kent State Tuscarawas is located at 330 University Dr. NE in New Philadelphia.