Research

Dr. Schmidt uses remote environments as analog research settings to explore novel forms of biomedical assessment and develop countermeasure strategies for those entering extreme environments, such as space. These also serve as dynamic operating environments where the goal is to enhance performance in live missions, operations, and sports.

This work has ranged from a Mayo Clinic research ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro, to orbital spaceflight, to National Geographic explorations at sea and in the jungle, to Special Forces excursions into alpine settings, to Corvette Racing and Le Mans series races, and others.

While being decidedly fun and engaging, these settings provide an opportunity to test out the reliability and reproducibility of our methods. They also allow us to further test our concepts of team cohesion, since team cohesion becomes heavily stressed under extreme conditions.

At the molecular level, it helps us to test molecules that might benefit heat tolerance, cold tolerance, exertional tolerance, altitude tolerance, isolation tolerance, cognition, reaction time,  recovery, and other parameters—all common elements of performance in challenging environments.