- Dr. Tim Broderick
- Physician
University of Cincinnati
I grew up in Cincinnati as part of a large family, the fifth of seven children. I learned important things from my family such as how to work hard and get along with others. My father was a family doctor and actually made house calls! Our whole family would drive around with him in our station wagon and visit his patients. Watching my dad, combined with my mother’s strong belief in helping others, inspired me to become a doctor.
Before studying medicine, I first studied computers and chemistry in college. Some people told me that I shouldn’t bother with computers as they wouldn’t help me when I became a doctor. Today, even doctors realize that computers are an important part of everything we do—including medicine. After medical school, I trained hard for another seven years to become a surgeon, but it was worth it. Operating on patients — fixing or taking out the broken parts of sick people — usually makes them feel better quickly. My eight-year-old daughter, Erin, likes that I take “rocks” out of sick patients using a lot of fun “toys”. The “rocks” are gallbladder stones that need to come out when they make patients sick and the “toys” are the computers, video games and robots that I use to teach and perform surgery. Computers and robots are only a few of the new surgical tools that I use to help patients feel better quicker and perform surgery more safely.
One of the coolest things I saw when I was a child was an astronaut on TV walking on the moon. I decided that I would become an astronaut some day, and I’m still hoping to get that call. In the meantime, I have a great job. As part of my research, I am helping NASA figure out how to use these new tools to take care of astronauts should they need an operation in space. This research takes place in awesome places — like an underwater laboratory and a special NASA airplane called the “vomit comet”. The NASA team is working in both inner and outer space to figure out how we can perform surgery on the way to Mars!
My daughters, Erin, Caitlin and Maggie, are excited that I will return to Aquarius this May for another “cool” NEEMO research and training mission. While they will miss me, they know that exploring and understanding nature and science are important.
It’s funny that being dedicated to helping others through medicine and science is one of the best ways of helping yourself. In NASA, medicine and science mean that you get to learn new and exciting things, travel to cool places, meet interesting people, float in an airplane, and swim with the fishes — even if you are not an astronaut!
