Roberta Bondar

Roberta Bondar Profile

A true Renaissance woman, in her remarkable career Dr. Roberta Bondar has been an astronaut, physician, scientific researcher, photographer, author, environment interpreter and team leader. High-powered organizations including Yale University, the United Nations Environment Program, Pfizer and the FBI have all invited her to give her remarkable motivational speeches on achievement and peak performance.

As an astronaut, Dr. Bondar has orbited the Earth 129 times, covering 3360 million miles in doing so. As a physician and scientist she has received 24 honorary doctorates from Canadian and American universities. Her groundbreaking work in space medicine, based on her specialties of neurology and neuro-ophthalmology, has been widely acclaimed and published in peer-reviewed journals. Working at NASA for over a decade, she explored connections between neurological illnesses and the experience of astronauts recovering from a microgravity environment.

Dr. Bondar has an abiding passion for the natural environment, and has been invited to speak to many prestigious organizations on social responsibility and environmental issues. She was also the Chair of the Working Group on Environmental Education for the Province of Ontario. This group made 32 recommendations, all of which were accepted by the Minister of Education and used to bolster the state’s environmental education program.

As a photographer, Dr. Bondar has explored some of the most extreme and remote parts of the planet, from the American Southwest to the high Arctic and the Sahara desert. In addition to her medical qualifications, she was an Honors student in Professional Nature Photography at the Brooke’s Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. Her works are much sought after and can be found in many private, corporate and institutional collections.

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  Creative Thinker—Renaissance Woman
  A cross-discipline thought leader with groundbreaking insights on the environment, innovation, discovery and leadership, Dr. Roberta Bondar is one of North America’s most sought-after and respected presenters.

  Meeting and conference planners from organizations as diverse as Yale University, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Gartner, Investors Group, Capgemini, Pfizer, Oracle, and the FBI have come to depend on her as a valued partner in planning and delivering customized presentations that consistently move audiences to their next level.

  Dr. Bondar draws on her remarkable depth of expertise as an astronaut, physician, scientific researcher, photographer, author, environment interpreter and team leader to stimulate, motivate, educate and inspire.

  By customizing each speech and keynote, Dr. Bondar brings added value with her maturity, wisdom gained from “in the trenches” life experiences, broad educational background and depth of personality. This unique combination will ensure that any event will be extraordinary.

  Astronaut
  14th flight of space shuttle Discovery, International crew, Experiments on the International Microgravity Labratory IML-1

  STS-42 Space Shuttle Discovery
  January 22-30, 1992

  • • Launch (Universal Time): January 22, 1992, 14h 52m 33s, Cape Canaveral, Launch Complex 39-A
    • Payload mass: 28,602 lbs (13 001 kg)
    • Duration of flight: 8d 01h 15m 43s
    • Distance: 3,360 million miles (5,407 million km)
    • Revolutions around Earth: 129
    • Landing date (wheel stop, Universal Time): January 30, 1992, 16h 08m 16s
    • Landing: Runway 22, Edwards Air Force Base, California

  Physician and Scientist

  Holder of the NASA Space Medal and inducted into the International Women’s Forum Hall of Fame and Canadian Medical Hall of Fame for her groundbreaking research in space medicine, Roberta Bondar has also received 24 honorary doctorates from Canadian and American universities. She holds medical licenses in New Mexico, Ontario and is a Canadian Board Certified Neurologist with a subspecialty in Neuro-ophthalmology.

  The world’s first neurologist in space, Dr. Bondar is globally recognized for her contributions to space medicine. On the space shuttle Discovery mission STS 42 in 1992, Dr. Bondar conducted scientific experiments in the First International Microgravity Laboratory. This research has been published in peer-reviewed medical research journals.

  For more than a decade at NASA, Dr. Bondar headed an international space medicine research team, continuing to find new connections between astronauts recovering from the microgravity of space and neurological illnesses here on Earth such as stroke and Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Bondar’s techniques have been used in clinical studies at BI Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and at the University of New Mexico.

  Throughout her career, Dr. Bondar has maintained a deep interest in our own natural environment, here on Earth, and has spoken to diverse scientific, corporate and environmental organizations about social responsibility and our environment.

  Dr. Bondar was Chair of the Working Group on Environmental Education for the Province of Ontario. All 32 recommendations of the working group were accepted by the Minster of Education and implemented to strengthen environmental education for elementary and secondary school students.

  Photographer and Author

  The View From There
  Roberta Bondar’s photographic explorations have taken her to some of the most extreme climatic and geological locations on Earth. She has captured the beauty, solitude and dramatic landscape of the American Southwest, the High Arctic and the Sahara Desert with its ancient Roman ruins.

  Roberta Bondar’s photographic proficiency adds a multi-dimension to her expression of experiences. As an Honors student in Professional Nature Photography at the Brook’s Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, California, she was deeply influenced by the poetic tableaus of renowned American photographer Ansel Adams.

  Having seen Earth from the unique perspective of space, her Earth centered pictorial images celebrate the beauty of our natural environment at an intimate level.

  Her photographic works may be found in private, corporate and institutional collections.