Shuttle veteran Bonnie Dunbar speaks on space exploration

Astronaut Bonnie Dunbar

NASA Astronaut Bonnie Dunbar will present the Laurence Levine `52 and Barry Traub `53 Lecture titled "From Apollo Into the New Millennium - Human Space-Flight Exploration" on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Dunbar will meet with high school and college students Thursday at 12:45 p.m. in the Olin Auditorium. She will meet with elementary and middle school students at 4.p.m., also in the Olin Auditorium. There will be a reception at 3:30 p.m. in the Olin Lobby.

Her talk is part of the Perspectives at the Nott Series. Dunbar's talk last spring was postoned due to weather.

Dr. Dunbar is a veteran of five NASA Space Shuttle flights. She has spent more than 50 days in space as a mission specialist and payload commander. She flew on Space Shuttles in 1985, 1990, 1992, 1995 and 1998. She was a mission specialist aboard the Atlantis in 1995, the first shuttle to dock and exchange crews with the Russian Mir. She was payload commander on Endeavour in 1998, which exchanged crew members and delivered 9,000 pounds of equipment to Mir.

She received bachelor and master of science degrees in ceramic engineering from the University of Washington. She earned her doctorate in mechanical and biomedical engineering from the University of Houston.

Dunbar will meet with elementary, high school and college students in events scheduled during before her talk.