Dr. Jean-Marc Comtois
Director of Operational Space Medicine
Canadian Space Agency

Dr. Jean-Marc Comtois was born in Montreal. In 1972, he joined the Canadian Armed Forces under the ROTP program and attended both the 'Collège Militaire Royal de St-Jean' and the 'Royal Military College'. He graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Engineering in 'Engineering and Management'. He initially worked as an Aeronautical Engineer at CFB Uplands as Maintenance Support Officer and Aircraft Servicing Officer. Subsequently, he worked as an Aircraft Project Officer at National Defense Headquarters.

In 1985, he graduated from Medical School, University of Western Ontario and completed a Rotating Internship following which he was posted to CFB Cold Lake, Alberta, our largest fighter base. He trained as a Flight Surgeon at DCIEM in 1986 and had the pleasure to work as Chief of Primary Care at Canadian Forces Hospital Cold Lake and subsequently as Base Surgeon. While in Cold Lake, he was the Flight Surgeon attached to 410 Sqn and 416 Sqn. In 1990, he spent 6 months in Central America as Flight Surgeon with the Canadian Helicopter Sqn taking part in the United Nation's successful efforts to demobilize and disarm Contra Rebels (ONUCA). In 1991, he worked 3 months in Djibouti, Africa as part of the United Nation Ethiopian Famine Relief.

He retired from the Canadian Armed Forces in 1992 and established himself as a Family Physician in Mitchell, Ontario where he also worked as a Coroner and Volunteer Firefighter.

His life long dream of being involved with the Space Program materialized in Sep 2000 when he joined the Canadian Space Agency as Director of Operational Space Medicine. He supported Marc Garneau's last Space Flight, STS-97 in Nov 2000 and more recently STS-100, Chris Hadfield's mission, which brought CANADARM 2 to the Space Station in April 2001.