Aerospace Medicine Residencies

UTMB offers a two-year, ACGME-accredited categorical aerospace medicine residency designed for physicians who want to practice medicine beyond conventional environments. This is an opportunity to become a physician uniquely prepared to protect and advance human health wherever exploration, aviation, and extreme environments take us.

Eligible applicants must have completed at least one prior year of clinical residency training. Due to the competitive nature of our program, applicants have often completed at least one primary residency at the time of acceptance into the program. During the two-year program, residents develop expertise in medical support of aerospace, extreme, and exploration environments, while gaining a sophisticated understanding of the physical and engineering forces that shape human performance and health in abnormal environments including flight. Training encompasses areas such as acceleration, hyperbaric and hypobaric environments, radiation exposure, human performance, and the physiologic challenges of aviation and spaceflight.

What makes the UTMB experience truly extraordinary is the breadth of environments in which our residents learn. Residents have the privilege of training across an unparalleled network of aerospace, governmental, military, research, and commercial partners, with opportunities at:

• UTMB and its academic medical center
• NASA - Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, and Headquarters
• Commercial spaceflight companies
• The Federal Aviation Administration
• United States military branches
• Additional national and international aerospace and extreme-environment sites

UTMB recognizes that aerospace medicine training can lead to extraordinary and diverse careers, and the Aerospace & Exploration faculty strives to tailor each resident's training experience to their individual professional goals. Whether trainee aspirations involve NASA, commercial spaceflight, military medicine, aviation, research, or the next frontier of human exploration, the faculty at UTMB work to build the experiences and expertise needed to get there.

Residents are also encouraged to maintain their primary clinical specialty skills, with dedicated opportunities for moonlighting during training. This allows continued clinical development while simultaneously building a highly specialized career in aerospace medicine.

At the conclusion of the program, residents are board eligible in preventive medicine/aerospace medicine.

At the Department of Aerospace and Exploration Medicine at UTMB, you don't just train for the future of medicine. You help build it.

At UTMB, residents become part of a legacy of innovation, discovery, and exceptional patient care while preparing for a career unlike any other. UTMB offers the only ACGME-accredited, combined four-year Internal Medicine/Aerospace Medicine Residency in the county, providing an unparalleled opportunity to become board eligible in both internal medicine and aerospace medicine through the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Preventive Medicine, respectively.

Few training environments offer the breadth, depth, and diversity of experiences available at UTMB. Residents train across robust clinical sites in Galveston and the surrounding region, gaining experience caring for patients with a remarkable range of medical conditions, backgrounds, and needs. With more than 150,000 annual visits in each the inpatient and outpatient settings, a 777-bed inpatient hospital, and more than 660 faculty and support staff, UTMB Internal Medicine provides an exceptional foundation in comprehensive, high-acuity clinical medicine.

What truly sets this program apart is the opportunity to experience medicine beyond the traditional hospital walls. Residents can pursue unique clinical experiences that few programs in the country can offer, including opportunities to:

• Train internationally in Japan, gaining insight into healthcare delivery and medical practice in a global setting.
• Care for incarcerated patients through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the only hospital located on a major academic medical campus providing care to the incarcerated population.
• Provide care to underserved and indigent populations in local community medicine clinics, developing the skills and perspective essential to becoming an outstanding physician.
• Explore a wide range of subspecialty medicine through UTMB's extensive in-house rotations, divisions, and fellowship programs:
  • Addiction Medicine
  • Allergy & Immunology
  • Anesthesiology
  • Antimicrobial Stewardship
  • Cardiology
  • Dermatology
  • Endocrinology
  • Gastroenterology
  • Geriatrics
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Intensive Care (general and neurological)
  • Medical Ethics
  • Medical Oncology & Hematology
  • Nephrology & Hypertension
  • Neurology
  • Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • Ophthalmology
  • Orthopedics
  • Otolaryngology
  • Palliative Care
  • Psychiatry
  • Point-of-Care Ultrasound
  • Pulmonary/Critical Care & Sleep Medicine
  • Interventional Pulmonology (Interventional)
  • Radiology
  • Research
  • Rheumatology
  • Sports Medicine

UTMB is also home to the Galveston National Laboratory, a nationally recognized high-containment research facility capable of conducting Biosafety Level 4 research and advancing the fight against some of the world's most challenging infectious diseases. The Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UTMB ranks #1 in the nation for NIH funding, reflecting an institutional commitment to groundbreaking science and discovery.

Residents also benefit from an institution where clinical medicine and research are deeply interconnected. The state-of-the-art UTMB Institute for Translational Sciences Clinical Research Center supports clinical trials, investigator-initiated studies, and industry-sponsored research, providing opportunities to participate in the discovery and development of the therapies and technologies that will define the future of medicine.

This is more than residency training. It's an opportunity to build a career at the intersection of medicine, exploration, innovation, and human potential—and to train alongside the people who are helping define what comes next.

Let your career take flight at UTMB.

UTMB is proud to offer the only ACGME-accredited, combined four-year Emergency Medicine/Aerospace Medicine Residency in the country, providing an unparalleled opportunity to become board eligible in both emergency medicine and aerospace medicine through the American Board of Emergency Medicine and the American Board of Preventive Medicine, respectively.

Few training environments can offer the breadth, depth, and diversity of experiences available at UTMB. Residents train at a world-class tertiary academic medical center, encountering an extraordinary breadth of pathology, high-acuity emergencies, and diverse patient populations. Training extends beyond the Galveston campus to the League City and Clear Lake UTMB campuses, providing a rare opportunity to experience emergency medicine across academic, community, urban, suburban, and coastal settings.

What truly sets this program apart is the opportunity to experience medicine beyond the traditional emergency department. Residents can pursue unique experiences that few programs in the country can offer, including opportunities to: 

• Master high-acuity care at a top-tier academic medical center with a Level I Trauma and Burn Center.
• Practice in the future of simulation in a state-of-the-art, 77-room simulation center—the largest in the country.
• Train in remote, austere, and extreme environments, developing the skills necessary to practice medicine where resources and circumstances are anything but routine.
• Train internationally in Japan, gaining insight into healthcare delivery and medical practice in a global setting.
• Become an ultrasound expert, developing advanced POCUS skills alongside fellowship-trained faculty, including one of the pioneers of bedside ultrasound.
• Shape the future of medicine through participation in NIH-supported translational research.
• Practice medicine on the global stage, caring for patients arriving through one of the busiest cruise ports in the United States.

UTMB provides an environment where clinical medicine, aerospace medicine, research, and innovation are deeply interconnected. Residents have the opportunity to work alongside leaders who are advancing the future of emergency and aerospace medicine while developing the knowledge, adaptability, and clinical expertise needed to care for patients wherever their careers take them.

This is more than residency training. It's an opportunity to build a career at the intersection of medicine, exploration, innovation, and human potential—and to train in a program designed to take you beyond the boundaries of traditional medicine.

Let your career take flight at UTMB.