STEM-Talk: Dawn Kernagis on permanent human subsea habitats

The Carolina coast had a big influence on Dawn Kernagis.

Kernagis was about 8 years old when her family moved to North Carolina, and as a water-loving child, she was often found swimming. Even so, the turning point for her was a visit to the Fort Fisher Aquarium that sparked what became a lifelong passion for diving.

Seeing a giant aquarium full of different species of fish that lived subsea triggered Dawn’s curiosity.

“This is amazing,” she thought. “I want to become a marine biologist.”

She began poring over her father’s oceanography textbooks from a class he was taking at North Carolina State University. Though some of the concepts flew over her head at the time, it became the portal that led her to what she wanted to do.

“I would read all of the diving magazines. I would write essays about what I thought it would be like to scuba dive when I was in middle school. I was just ready to go underwater.”

Kernagis, our normal STEM-Talk co-host, is on the other side of the microphone for this episode, talking about her new position as the director of scientific research for DEEP, a UK startup that is pioneering the next era of ocean exploration.

Kernagis is a NASA-trained NEEMO Aquanaut, a Fellow of the Explorer’s Club and has been inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame. In addition to co-hosting STEM-Talk for the past nine years, she is also a Visiting Research Scientist at IHMC. Her research has been focused on protecting the brain and nervous system of people working in extreme environments.

The episode includes conversations about:

• How her love of cave diving led to her “obsession” with ways to protect people who dive in extreme environments.
• Her acceptance into the Aquanaut Program and her participation in one of NASA’s NEEMO missions.
• How Dawn became director of scientific research for DEEP, a company aiming to “Make Humans Aquatic,” and much more. Visit your preferred podcast platform to listen today.

IHMC is a not-for-profit research institute of the Florida University System where researchers pioneer science and technology aimed at leveraging and extending human capabilities. IHMC researchers and staff collaborate extensively with the government, industry and academia to help develop breakthrough technologies. IHMC research partners have included: DARPA, the National Science Foundation, NASA, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, IBM, Microsoft, Honda, Boeing, Lockheed, and many others.