Where could your pathology training take you…? How about into outer space?
That’s exactly where it took veterinarian Richard M. Linnehan. Back in 2018, we spoke with him about combining his two passions in forging his career. Here’s what he told us.
On becoming an astronaut
“Before I applied to veterinary school, the only other thing I had ever wanted to be was a fighter pilot. I was accepted into the Air Force and veterinary school at the same time, and my advisor convinced me to choose the latter. During my studies, I used to watch the shuttle launches and ask myself, “How can I still fly?” And I figured that, if the space program was sending up mission specialists, doctors, physicists, and geologists, they’d need a veterinarian as well.
I interviewed with them (for which I can thank my experience as a deploying military marine mammal veterinarian) and, in 1992, they called me to say, “Would you like to be an astronaut?” Well – of course I would!”
On doing his bit for humankind
“I was pleased to have the opportunity to use my veterinary degree and pathology training to help the future survival of humanity. If we can’t figure out how to keep humans healthy and strong in space, then we’re not going to go. We won’t travel long distances to other planets, because by the time we get there, we’re going to be so unhealthy and so discombobulated that we won’t be able to function. I hope our operational studies will one day help humans take to the stars.”
On the One Health principle
“When you look down at our planet from space, you realize that everything that seems so big and infinite… isn’t. It made me realize just how important the concept of One Health is. For instance, I’m a veterinarian, so I do comparative pathology – avian, reptile, amphibian, mammalian, human, even invertebrate – but most healthcare professionals focus only on humans. One Health brings us back to the idea that it’s all connected.”
Read the full article, first published in June 2018.
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