Rowena Christiansen

MBBS, MEmergHealth, MBA, BA Hons, LLB, DCH, GradDipEd, GradDipDisasterMed, ACCAM, GradCertSpaceStudies, ISU SHSSP16, FAsMA, Fellow, Ormond College

Australian physician Dr Rowena Christiansen practices in aerospace medicine, medical education, and pre-hospital emergency care. She teaches in the University of Melbourne Medical School, and in 2022 developed a new MD1 ‘Discovery Subject’ “Human health in the space environment”, and also lectures on ‘humans in space’ for Swinburne University.

Rowena is passionate about aerospace medicine advocacy, education and outreach, and volunteer service, and serves on the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) Executive Committee as a Vice-President (2023-24), and is also a member of the AsMA Education and Training Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee on Commercial Spaceflight. Rowena is an AsMA Fellow and past chair of the Associate Fellows Group (AFG), current Bibliographer for the Aerospace Physiology Society (AsPS), Parliamentarian for the Space Surgery Association, Secretary for the Aerospace Human Factors Association, and a former Member-at-Large for the Space Medicine Association Executive Committee and the AsMA Council. She has received awards for outstanding service from the AFG (three times), and the AsPS, in addition to the 2023 AsPS Fred A Hitchcock Award.

Rowena is a member of the Australian Space Agency Space Medicine Technical Advisory Group, the Space Life Sciences Committee of the Australasian Society for Aerospace Medicine, and a member of the Association of Spaceflight Professionals and the Aeromedical Society of Australasia. Rowena is a Director of Mars Society Australia, and the inaugural Treasurer for the Australasian Wilderness and Expedition Medicine Society. She is a representative member for the Australian Resuscitation Council. Rowena is a volunteer ski patroller, the Chair of the Australian Ski Patrol Association Medical Advisory Committee, and a medical advisor for Alpine Search and Rescue Victoria.

She is the Founder of the “ad astra vita” project, and a co-founder of the International Humans in Space Summit. A finalist in the annual Australian Space Awards for 2020-23 (winner of the 2023 'Innovator of the Year - Individual' category), and the Aviation and Aerospace Australia Awards for 2022, Rowena was also selected for the 2021 ESA Space Physician Training Course. Rowena is a UNOOSA Space4Women Mentor and an International Space University (ISU) alumna and mentor, and mentors many young people informally. She received the the 2016 award for Outstanding Academic Achievement for the ISU Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program, and was the recipient of the 2019-20 Aeromedical Society of Australasia Professional Development Scholarship.

Rowena is the Research Director, Health Law for the Jus Ad Astra human rights in space project. She has contributed to aerospace medicine research publications as an author, journal editor, and reviewer.