Roberta Bondar is a legend and a heroine to thousands of North Americans, children and

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Joshua Houston
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1 THE LEGEND OF ROBERTA BONDAR.THE YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY. Roberta Bondar is a legend and a heroine to thousands of North Americans, children and adults alike, who watched her blast off into history in January 1992, aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Overnight she changed the dreams and aspirations of parents and children alike as she became the first neurologist in space and Canada's first woman astronaut. Single handedly she broke the mould that had limited the imaginative possibilities of countless young people around the world. Ten years later her commitment remains strong to a vision of our world that will unite new skills and knowledge bases around the global community, a vision of a united earth she first had, staring down in wonder at the blue planet below. To that end, Roberta Bondar has layered her career with many accomplishments: physician, scientist, astronaut, speaker, author and photographer. "My flight into space left me with a whole new view of my science, my future and myself. Medicine now seemed to encompass more than my specialities of neurology and space medicine. It included the health of the environment. I decided the planet would be my focus''. Through her work, including extensive medical and science degrees, with specializations in agriculture and zoology, experimental pathology, space medicine, neurobiology, neurology, and neurophthalmology (how we see and record the world), Dr. Bondar has been recognized with 24 honorary doctorates from universities across North America. Among her numerous commendations, she has been further honored as a member of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a recipient of the NASA Space Medal.

2 For more than a decade, Dr. Bondar has headed an international medical research team for NASA studying the effects of short and long-term space flight on cerebral blood flow in astronauts, where she was the first to record simultaneously blood flow to the brain and from the heart, beat by beat. A strong proponent for using space medical research to provide insight into diseases encountered on Earth, her space developed technology has been used in clinical studies at the Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and has linked to neurological conditions, including spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, stroke and Parkinson s disease. Whether studying the Earth from outer space or analyzing the human condition at a cellular level, Roberta Bondar s astronautical and medical experience have only heightened her passion about the world, the environment and the future generations of this planet. Documenting her ongoing love affair with our planet's extreme and remote environments, Roberta Bondar s photographic proficiency adds a multi-dimension to her expression of experiences. As an honors student at The Brook s Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, she was deeply influenced by the poetic nature tableaus of renowned American photographer Ansel Adams. Having seen the earth from the unique perspective of space, her earth centred pictorial images celebrate the beauty of our natural environment at an intimate level. In 1998, Roberta set off across the vastness of Canada on a quest to capture on film the majesty of its forty-one National Parks. These compelling Images have been published as

3 PASSIONATE VISION: DISCOVERING CANADA S NATIONAL PARKS, and have shown extensively in solo and museum exhibitions across the country. She continues to circumnavigate the Earth photographing its extremes. In 2003 Dr. Bondar was installed as the Chancellor of Trent University, inducted into the International Women s Forum s International Hall of Fame, recognized by Time magazine as one of Canada s Five Best Explorers, named the Walter E. Dandy Distinguished Orator for the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and appointed Teitelman Fellow of Yale University, in celebration of women s space achievements. She is featured on the 2003 Canada Post Roberta Bondar Astronaut stamp. Today, in addition to her continuing medical exploration, Roberta Bondar is a much sought-after speaker, offering her abilities as a leader, visionary and connector to corporate and public audiences alike, addressing achievement, leadership, courage, and the critical thinking necessary for changing perspectives in the contemporary world. While the legend is impressive, it is only the surface of the world of Roberta Bondar. Much like a planet seen from space.

4 OFFICIAL BIO Roberta L. Bondar, OC, O.On, MD, PhD, FRCP, FRSC Physician, scientist, astronaut and photographer Born in Sault Ste Marie on Lake Superior, Dr. Roberta Bondar embarked on a career of scientific pursuits beginning in high school. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture and zoology from the University of Guelph, and a master s degree in experimental pathology at the University of Western Ontario. She completed her doctorate in neurobiology at the University of Toronto. Bondar earned her medical degree at McMaster University with a special interest in space medicine. After completing her board certification in Neurology, she studied at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston, specializing in Neurophthalmology, how we see and record the world around us. In 1983, she was one of the six original Canadian astronauts selected to train at NASA and in 1992 Bondar ascended into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. In her role as an international payload specialist she conducted life and material science experiments in space, becoming Canada s first woman astronaut and the world s first neurologist in space. For more than a decade she headed an international medical research team studying the effects of short- and long-term space flight on cerebral blood flow in astronauts, where she was the first to record simultaneously blood flow to the brain and from the heart, beat by beat. Bondar and her team of researchers examined data obtained from astronauts returning from 24 missions to better understand the mechanisms underlying the ability of the body to recover from exposure to microgravity, and by extension, to provide insight

5 into illnesses on Earth that share the same symptoms including a variety of neurological conditions, such as spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, stroke and Parkinson s disease. Both NASA and the University of New Mexico collaborated in this research which included ground based studies that simulated conditions of spaceflight. Her space developed technology has been used in clinical studies at the Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Upon returning to Earth, Bondar wrote Touching The Earth a book in which she speaks of her space experience and her love of the planet. Further honing her skills, she studied professional nature photography at the Brook s Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. Her accomplishments in nature and landscape photography led the National Gallery of Canada to ask her to participate in its 1997 landmark exhibition, Science and Photography: Beauty of Another Order". Roberta Bondar has published two other photography books on the Earth s landscapes, Passionate Vision and Landscape of Dreams. Her two ongoing photography projects include: Portraits of Astronauts and the major deserts of the world. Among her numerous commendations, Dr. Bondar has been honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame for her pioneering research in space medicine, and recognized with the Order of Canada and the NASA Space Medal. In addition, she has received 24 honorary doctorates from Canadian and American universities. In 2003 Dr. Bondar was installed as the Chancellor of Trent University, inducted into the International Women s Forum s International Hall of Fame, recognized by Time magazine as one of Canada s Five Best Explorers, named the Walter E. Dandy

6 Distinguished Orator for the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and appointed Teitelman Fellow at Yale University, in celebration of women s space achievements. She is featured on the 2003 Canada Post Roberta Bondar Astronaut stamp.

7 Quotes: Flexibility to change rapidly and to stay ahead of the curve implies agility of mind at all ages. Sharing a vision means understanding and respecting why different dreams are born and how they can blend together, around the edges or in the middle.

Biography - Dr. Lee Kawagley

Biography - Dr. Lee Kawagley Roberta Bondar http://www.robertabondar.ca/ Roberta Bondar was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario on December 4, 1945. Dr. Bondar was keenly interested in the idea of space travel from an early age. Her