Undergraduate Research at the Intersection of Medicine and the Military
After a shoulder dislocation injury disqualified him from attending the Air Force Academy after high school, Thomas Statz had to change course. When he came to Baylor University as a Health Science Studies (HSS) major instead, he knew he wanted to be involved in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and decided to contract into the United States Army—following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Through the guidance of his professors in the Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation (HHPR), as well as his previous laboratory experience, Statz was soon able to find an intersection of his interests, the military and medicine.
“I believe being in the military is the highest honor a citizen in the U.S. can achieve. I feel morally obligated—like nothing's making me do this, but I feel like it’s what's right,” Statz shared. “I also have that passion to help people through medicine. That's what I feel my calling is.”
As a sophomore, Statz researched the requirements for medical school and noted that activities like community service, clinical shadow hours, and research are very important. He felt confident in his research skills—research methods, creating hypotheses, carrying out experiments—because of a laparoscopy surgical course he took the year before. He decided to reach out to his professor, Tricia Blalock, PT, DPT, MPH, CEEAA, CLT, Clinical Associate Professor and Director of HSS, to ask if she knew of any colleagues that might be researching medicine’s intersection with veterans or active-duty military personnel.
Blalock connected Statz to Cory Smith, PhD, Assistant Professor, who conducts research specializing in human and environmental physiology, physiological-based multimodal sensor data fusion, and neurophysiological research, across a diverse field of interest—including the military. After meeting with Smith, Statz signed on to work in the Human & Environmental Physiology Laboratory until his anticipated graduation in December 2025. After two years working in Smith’s lab, Statz is now the senior undergraduate research assistant.
“I manage all the undergrads. I'm in charge of their training and making sure that all the work flows correctly,” Statz said. “It’s my job is to make it efficient for the doctoral students and let them focus on that higher level work.”
He said the lab is currently focusing on how the body—particularly those of service members—changes physiologically in extreme cold weather, simulating hypoxic conditions. The team is studying how these conditions change marksmanship and medical procedures like CPR and tourniquet application. Statz considers himself to be well-rounded from his time in the lab, assisting in each part of the research design. He acts like a scrub tech in an operating room—setting up everything for doctoral students and for participants, laying out the equipment, and getting everything calibrated. Once the participant comes in, Statz does collection, hands-on clinical work, and blood analysis.
“We have a massive chamber that can get as cold, humid, or dry as we desire,” Statz explained. “Once a participant is ready to enter the controlled climate—it's at zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit)—they are submerged in 13.5 degrees Celsius (56.3 degrees Fahrenheit) water. We're safely inducing hypothermia, so they're going to come out shivering. We're working with very fit, active military members, so it's cool to see them going through physiological and environmental challenges and how their body reacts.”
Not only has this lab helped Statz define his future career goals, but it has also given him a leg up in his HSS classes because of the hands-on experiences.
“This lab has really helped me connect with classes,” Statz said. “For example, right now, I'm taking Human Anatomy, Physiology, and Kinesiology. I know and understand brain function, blood flow, and muscular function because I've seen it firsthand—I've worked on someone, and I've taken the measurements. It all connects.”
During his remaining time at Baylor, Statz plans on accompanying Smith to presentations and conferences that are military-focused, as well as working on publications of the research they are conducting in the lab. He said these opportunities have turned him into a scientist and created a desire in him to pursue physician-science research in the future.
“I would highly recommend this major for anyone. Our professors are unmatched,” Statz said. “I can't give enough gratitude to Dr. Smith and Dr. Blalock for the opportunities that they have given to me. Hopefully, I can come back one day, at a high point at my career, and say ‘thank you.’”