Victor Nelson was born on July 8, 1943 in Graceville, Minnesota. He earned his B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1965 and his M.D. from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1969. On December 28,1968, he was married to Deborah Schwertfeger. He took further training at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California, Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, McLaren Regional Medical Center in Flint, Michigan, and at the U.S. Army Aero-medical Center in Ft. Rucker, Alabama. He served as a flight surgeon on army active duty from 1973-1975. Victor entered private medical practice in 1975 and has been the Clinical Director of a University of Texas residency program, and the… medical director of a hospital clinic. In May of 2004, he was assigned by the University of Texas Medical Branch to work at the Flight Analog Research Unit and at the Human Test Subject Facility in NASA's Johnson Space Center. There, he supported work on countermeasures to the pathophysiologic effects of prolonged space-travel. He contracted to work in July of 2009 at the Soldier Readiness Center in Ft. Hood, Texas. He was present during the November fifth shooting and was one of the first responders to render medical care to the victims. Victor and Deborah have three children and four grandchildren.
David Irwin received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1983. He is a professor in the UIUC Department of Psychology and a part-time faculty member in the Beckman Institute Human Perception and Performance Group. His fields of professional interest are visual perception, visual cognition, and psycholinguistics. Honors and awards: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award.