Nina Purvis

In 2025, I completed a 13-month mission as the European Space Agency’s research medical doctor at Concordia Station, Antarctica – one of the most remote and extreme environments on earth. There, I conducted 8 biomedical and psychological experiments, utilising past experiences from research in cancer MR imaging, biomechanics, omics, and surgery – in some cases performing techniques novel to this setting and adapting them to work. By studying how the mind and body respond to hypoxia, isolation, low humidity, cold and stress, I generated insights that help enable human exploration in other hostile environments from space to high-risk settings on earth. These findings can translate to better care for ICU patients, responders in disaster zones with limited equipment or war zones with uncommon mechanisms of injury. Understanding leads to countermeasures, allowing astronauts to survive, thrive and perform in new extremes like Mars.

My projects investigated the microbiome, exercise tolerance, cognition and learning ability, immunity & allergies, the skin barrier and microbial colonies, glucose tolerance & insulin resistance, time perception, sleep quality, and mental health. This work contributes to a knowledge base that will allow humans to become interplanetary explorers.

I am a multidisciplinary clinician-researcher committed to meaningful work in the most extreme environments – whether performing surgery on a body under the stress of disease or studying how a body adapts to the hazards of spaceflight or developing a technology to work in a novel setting. My degree in astrophysics inspired me to understand the physical environment; my PhD in cancer research gave me coding expertise and experience with the intensity of human clinical trials, my medical training prepared me to be a surgical doctor, and my MSc in Space Health revealed how profoundly the body responds to extremes. I am driven by the challenge of filling knowledge gaps, the need for practical solutions, and the fundamental clinical motivation to help people.

During my winterover in Antarctica, I faced the most difficult days of my life in the name of scientific endeavour and to keep the crew safe as their search & rescue doctor. With extreme temperatures, low oxygen and isolation for many months, the environment could feel overwhelming. Some days I avoided looking out the window for fear of acknowledging the severity of the ice desert outside; on others I gazed in awe beneath the Milky Way and Aurora, so bright they cast shadows. Both types of day were intense motivators.  My twin passions – surgery and spaceflight – ensure that I benefit hospital patients and those in extreme environments. 

I hope that in the future we do send humans to Mars – but only with commitment in ensuring astronauts thrive, not merely survive. Exploration must be purposeful, sustainable, and grounded in scientific integrity. Much like Antarctica, Mars should be pursued for discovery, inspiration, and science, and only those reasons.