Today, we broadcasted from IHMC in downtown Pensacola. Marcas Bamman is a Senior Research Scientist and Director of Healthspan, Resilience, and Performance Research at IHMC.
“The research here is spanning from the elite most performer to individuals with multimorbidity, chronic disease, older individuals,” Bamman said. “When we think of the term health span, what does that really mean? It means trying to extend the period of life during which people are largely free of disease and performing at a high level in whatever they choose to do. So it’s really about health status, pushing that line as far as you can to the right, maintaining a high level of performance and overall health resilience.”
He continued, “We want to be able to be resilient to various stressors in life. And there’s lots of different ways to study that and try to improve upon that. And then ultimately performance, whether it’s cognitive performance, physical performance, or thinking about your body, it’s not just whole body performance, it’s in this building. We have the ability to study all the small puzzle pieces, too.”
Jeff Phillips is a senior research scientist at IHMC. He is interested in developing mitigation strategies for common environmental, physiological, and cognitive stressors that break down optimal performance in military operators such as jet pilots, special-ops personnel, and others who are placed in extreme conditions.
“Another reason for me that’s important to be here is to give young people in the area an opportunity to get this kind of experience and these job skills to sort of launch their careers into the future,” Phillips said. “And hopefully a lot of them will choose to stay here. If we continue to have STEM growth in the area, there will be jobs for them here.”
Gwen Bryan is a Research Scientist at IHMC who focuses on powered exoskeletons. Yes, she is making Sci-Fi come to life.
“I love to introduce young women to science and really support them,” Bryan shared. “It is something that I do a lot in my free time. I’ll do science Saturdays here where we do hands-on STEM activities with kids. We do a robotics camp over the summer. Yes, I love to be involved with both of those and just really support and encourage young women to get into STEM because we’re underrepresented in this field, and I think that it’s something that a lot of people can really get into and be excited about.”
