"When I grow up I want to be an astronaut". This is a familiar refrain for many parents of young children - especially boys. But what is it really like to be an astronaut, and how can this childhood dream become a reality? NASA astronaut Dr Bonnie Dunbar will be answering these questions at a lecture organised by the University's Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative (WiSETI) on 7 May. She will also encourage the girls in the audience to consider a career in science, proving by example that it is not just a job for boys.
"When I grow up I want to be an astronaut". This is a familiar refrain for many parents of young children - especially boys. But what is it really like to be an astronaut, and how can this childhood dream become a reality? NASA astronaut Dr Bonnie Dunbar will be answering these questions at a lecture organised by the University's Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative (WiSETI) on 7 May. She will also encourage the girls in the audience to consider a career in science, proving by example that it is not just a job for boys.
Dr Dunbar is a veteran of five space flights, and has spent a total of 50 days in space, orbiting the earth 796 times. Most recently she was Payload Commander on the eighth docking mission to the Russian Space Station MIR. A ceramics expert, she helped to develop the equipment and processes for manufacturing the thermal protection system for the Space Shuttle.
More recently, Dr Dunbar has conducted research on the effects of zero gravity on bone strength, during simulated space flights. She has correlated these effects to changes in hormonal and metabolic activity, with important implications for those of us on land (eg osteoporosis sufferers).
Dr Nancy Lane OBE, Director of WiSETI, hopes the event will prove a big inspiration both to women students at Cambridge and local schoolgirls:
"Girls are brilliant at science but very few seem to picture themselves in a scientific career. This is a wasted opportunity for so many bright girls, and a serious waste of talent for the scientific community. Bonnie Dunbar is an excellent role model and I'm sure her talk will convey the excitement of a career in space."
The lecture begins at 5pm at Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge (doors open at 4.30pm).
WiSETI was established in March 1999, to increase the representation of women in science in the University. The general picture in Cambridge (and nationally) is one of continuing under-representation of women in SET.
Schlumberger Cambridge Research are the sponsors of this lecture. Housed in a distinctive marquee-like structure on the West Cambridge site, Schlumberger Cambridge Research focuses on real-time interpretation, geomechanics, physical chemistry, fluid mechanics and seismics.
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