Roberta L BondarThe world's first neurologist in space, and the first female Canadian astronaut, Dr. Roberta L. Bondar is globally recognized for her pioneering contributions to space medicine research, fine art photography, and education on the environment. board the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-42 in 1992, she conducted experiments for eighteen countries in the first International Microgravity Laboratory, a precursor to the International Space Station. For over a decade after her spaceflight, she headed an international research team working with NASA on neurological symptoms recognized after spaceflight, and their connections to neurological diseases on Earth.
Trained by NASA's Earth Observations team, Dr. Bondar photographed the Earth on her historic mission. To explore the planet that she had circled 129 times, Dr. Bondar became an honors student in Professional Nature Photography. For her Passionate Vision project, she photographed with medium and large format film cameras, all of Canada's forty-one National Parks and Reserves and Marine Parks as they existed at the turn of the millennium, followed by global arid landscapes and their World Heritage Sites.
Dr. Bondar's high-resolution digital photographs reveal Earth's natural environment, through the lenses of astronaut, medical doctor, photographer, scientist, writer, and zoologist, to create visual stories of hope and inspiration that connect and reconnect people to the natural world of Earth. Private, corporate, and institutional collections in Canada, the USA and the UK hold Dr. Bondar's fine art photographic prints. She is the author of several best-selling books featuring her writing and photography.
Dr. Bondar's distinctions are diverse and include: Companion of the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the NASA Space Medal, induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame and into the International Women's Forum's Hall of Fame, many honorary doctorates from Canadian and American Universities, a former Chancellor of Trent University, six Canadian schools in her name, a Specially Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and her own star on Canada's Walk of Fame.
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