Pawelczyk, Jim

America's First Polish-American Astronaut, Dr. Jim Pawelczyk

By ELISSA BANAS
Buffalo, New York - The site of the first meeting of the Polish-American Congress in 1944 and the city that boasts the largest percentage of Polish Americans in the United States is now also the birthplace of America's first astronaut of full-blooded Polish descent. Dr. Jim Pawelczyk.
Pawelczyk served as a Payload Specialist on the STS-90 Neurolab mission which launched on April 17, 1998 from Pad 93B at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Pawelczyk graduated from Iroquois Central High School, Elma, New York, in 1978 and received his B.S. degrees in biology and psychology from the University of Rochester, New York. He received his M.S. degree in physiology from Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. degree in biology (physiology) from the University of North Texas.
Pawelczyk was an investigator for several NASA research projects while at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. In 1994 he received a NASA Young Investigator Award for his work in the area of autonomic neurophysiology.
An assistant professor of physiology and kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University, Pawelczyk is a leading researcher in the field of cardiovascular regulation. He was selected in April 1996 to train for the, STS-90 Neurolab mission and was chosen for the prime crew of STS-90 in April 1997.
Neurolab, NASA's contribution to the Decade of the Brain, was a NASA research mission dedicated to the study of the nervous system. During the flight, the Neurolab crew served as both subjects and operators of the 26 major experiments. Along with its human crew, Neurolab carried rats, mice, two kinds of fish, snails, and crickets into space. Different experiments studied the elements of the vestibular system (balance and equilibrium), our system of regulating sleep, blood pressure control, and the process of development and adaptation in a microgravity environment. Pawelczyk was a coinvestigator on the autonomic experiments for the mission.
Pawelczyk, whose great-grandparents emigrated from Poland, grew up in Elma, New York, just outside of Buffalo. He continues to follow his family's traditions and enjoys sharing those traditions with others. For instance, Pawelczyk tells of how he cooked a traditional Polish meal for the crew while they were in quarantine on Easter Sunday. "I used my family's recipe to make borsch and had kielbasa from a family-owned business in Buffalo shipped to Houston." (The crew is put in quarantine to cutdown the chances of being exposed to illness before the launch.) Fellow crew member Rick Linnehan remarked that "it was probably the best meal the crew quarters at Johnson Space Center had ever seen."
Pawelczyk is proud of his heritage and brought a Polish Flag with him on Neurolab. He was recently honored at the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C. The STS-90 Neurolab mission was followed with great interest in Poland due to Pawelczyk's ancestry and because he brought the flag with him on the mission.
The Embassy breakfast held in Pawelczyk's honor was hosted by Boguslaw Majewski, Minister-Counselor of the Polish Embassy. Also in attendance were fellow Neurolab Astronaut Rick Linnehan; Colonel Polkowski, the Embassy's Military Attache; Dr. Rabczenko, the Embassy's Science Attache; and correspondents from the Polish Press Agency and Poland's major radio and television stations.
During the breakfast, Minister-Counselor Majewski officially invited Pawelczyk and the rest of the crew to Poland. Pawelczyk will formally present the Polish flag to the President of Poland at that time. The Polish press conducted interviews with Pawelczyk after the breakfast concluded.
Pawelczyk stated that he is excited about the possibility of visiting Poland with the rest of the crew. He hopes to bring his parents, Joseph and Rita Pawelczyk of Elma, New York, with him on the trip.
From: The Post Eagle, Vol. 36, No. 34, Aug. 26, 1998