Dr. Nick Kanas is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he has directed the group therapy training program. For over 20 years he has conducted research in group therapy and conducted space-related research with the European Space Agency and NASA. He was a Principal Investigator of NASA-funded research on astronauts and cosmonauts for over 15 of these years & has published over 200 professional publications. In 1971 he was the senior author of a NASA technical monograph entitled: Behavioral, Psychiatric and Sociological Problems of Long-Duration Space Missions. (NASA TM X-58067). He is currently the co-author of a Springer textbook entitled: Space Psychology and Psychiatry, which was given the 2004 International Academy of Astronautics Life Science Book Award, is now in its 2nd edition and has been translated into Chinese. The first edition of his title 'Star Maps' (Springer, 2007) was well-reviewed and went through two printings. The follow-up "Solar System Maps" was released in 2013.
In 1999, he received the Aerospace Medical Association's Longacre Award and in 2008, he received the International Academy of Astronautics Life Science Award and is currently a member and past trustee of the International Academy of Astronautics. Dr. Kanas is also a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (London).