Roberta Bondar Biography

Roberta Bondar or Roberta Lynn Bondar is the first Canadian woman to travel into space. She was also the first neurologist and researcher to do so. She has received many honors including the ‘Order of Canada’, the ‘Order of Ontario’, the Nasa space Medal’ and others. Her field of research was mainly the human nervous system on which she conducted a large number of basic and clinical experiments. She spent a decade being the head of NASA’s team for space medicine and has spoken of her experiences and ideas at various scientific, business and medical gatherings. She led a team of international researchers at NASA for more than a decade who examined the data received from various space flights to find out the effect of low gravity on the human body and its ability to overcome the exposure to the weightlessness in space. After her space career she pursued her interests in photography and covered many natural habitats of wild animals to write her books replete with numerous photographs. Roberta Bondar enjoyed flying, canoeing, biking, hot-air ballooning, fishing, cross-country hiking and skiing and target shooting with both handgun and rifle. Her work on space science and weightlessness helped others to understand many things that were hitherto unknown to mankind.