The Theodore C. Lyster Award is given for outstanding achievement in the general field of aerospace medicine. It is sponsored by the Society of U.S. Army Flight Surgeons.

Jan Stepanek, M.D., MPH, FAsMA, DiMM, is this year’s winner of the Theodore C. Lyster Award. He is being honored for his exemplary service to clinical practice, his innovative work in vestibular research, and serving as an educator for more than two decades within the field of aerospace medicine. He has devoted his research to vestibular function in pilots and astronauts as it pertains to spatial disorientation and motion illness mitigation. As well as serving as an educator for multiple students rotating through the Mayo Clinic’s and other training programs, he has written multiple curricula for courses focused on trainees and has evaluated dozens of individuals with altitude-related illnesses within a specialized clinic he developed to assess these complex conditions. He has been an entrepreneur and innovator with more than 75 patents registered among himself and his research collaborators. Additionally, he has been a passionate advocate for aerospace medicine and has devoted countless hours to researching key historical aspects of aviation history, chronicling work done by Mayo physicians and scientists, producing several documents and a movie highlighting the work of the Mayo Aeromedical Unit in World War II.