The first-ever aerospace optometry fellow has been appointed to the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Dr Kyle Dohm’s fellowship will focus on spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS), a condition that affects about 70% of astronauts on long-duration space missions of 30 days or more.
This fellowship is a first of its kind at NASA, and was created by Dr Tyson Brunstetter, a SANS specialist at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.
SANS is thought to be caused by the headward fluid shifts that occur in weightlessness, when blood and fluids shift toward the head. It can lead to optic disc oedema, chorio-retinal folds, globe flattening, and shifts in refractive error.
For this fellowship, Dr Dohm, who is a naval optometrist, will help research SANS and develop better mitigation and prevention strategies to ease the effects of SANS and allow astronauts to go longer and further in space.
“We can’t send people to Mars if their vision is negatively impacted the longer they’re in space,” Dr Dohm told his alma mater, the University of Missouri-St Louis College of Optometry.1 “We have to solve some big things for the eyes in order to explore further.”
Reference
- Riske H, UMSL optometry alum and U.S. Navy captain Dr. Kyle Dohm named first aerospace optometry fellow at NASA, UMSL Daily available at: blogs.umsl.edu/news/2026/06/11/kyle-dohm-nasa-fellowship/ [accessed June 2026].