It is his first actual visit to the ILS, following a virtual appearance at the Institute's launch earlier this year, on September 20, via remote link.

During his visit, Dr Williams will deliver a lecture to an invited audience of peers and researchers and he will also meet a group of eight-year old schoolchildren from Swansea.

Dr Williams, a Canadian of Welsh descent, is both an astronaut and an aquanaut. He has an enduring interest in developing new ways to deliver medical care in extreme environments. He will be discussing collaborative research in this area with researchers at the Institute of Life Science.

Dr Williams is currently an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto and McGill University.

He has more than 15 years experience in Space missions and astronaut programmes. In April 1998, he participated in STS-90 as Mission Specialist 3 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia for a 16-day flight.

In October 2001, he became an aquanaut through his participation in Neemo 1, a seven-day training exercise held in Aquarius, the world's only underwater research laboratory. He is one of the few people to have lived and worked in space and in the ocean. 

In 2006, Dr Williams took the lead of Neemo 9 as the crew commander of this mission dedicated to assess new ways to deliver medical care to a remote location, as would be done in a long space flight.

Earlier this year, from August 8-21, Dr Williams was a mission specialist on STS-118 the 20th flight for space shuttle Endeavour.

For Dr Williams' full biography click here and for further information about the Institute of Life Science at Swansea University click here.