As the first Canadian female astronaut and neurologist in space, Dr. Roberta Bondar is a pioneer in many ways and her legacy is far reaching.
Twenty-seven years ago, Dr. Roberta Bondar was a payload specialist on-board the space shuttle ‘Discovery’. She performed 40 experiments on microgravity to better understand how zero gravity affects the human body. In the years following her flight into space, she continued to make major contributions to space medicine research.
While the journey into space had a major impact on Bondar, she admits that viewing Earth from space changed her perspective in fundamental ways. It altered her outlook on environmentalism, the conservation of Earth’s precious resources and efforts to protect this incredible planet.
She became a professional photographer, capturing the beauty of various natural landscapes, including all of Canada’s national parks, the High Arctic, Sahara and American deserts. Bondar helps us understand and appreciate our planet by showing us places that few people have had the opportunity to see due to its geographical remoteness. Her photographs are inspired by her own curiosity about other life forms and the role they play in the complex ecosystems they live within.
In 2009, ‘The Roberta Bondar Foundation’ was registered as a not-for-profit charity with a mission to fuse art and science in the exploration of the relationship between life forms on this wonderous planet Earth.
In addition to her inspirational work as a photographer, astronaut and scientist, her legacy is also rooted in being a strong role-model of empowerment for women, an active environmentalist, and an engaging educator.
“Art makes you want to think about things
differently than you did before…”
Dr. Roberta Bondar
https://www.therobertabondarfoundation.org/
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