Biography of Roberta Lynn Bondar

She earns a double Bachelor of Science (BSc Agr) in zoology and agriculture from the University of Guelph. Obtains Canadian Private Pilot's License.

She completes a Master of Science (MSc) in experimental pathology from Western University, London, Ontario.

Dr. Bondar earns a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in neurobiology, University of Toronto.

Bondar earns a Doctor of Medicine (MD), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, and obtains her License, Medical Council of Canada.

She becomes a Board Certified Neurologist, Canada.

She holds Neuro-ophthalmology Fellowship at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and at Toronto Western Hospital.

She is appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University.

Bondar is selected in 1983 in the first group of the Canadian Astronaut Program from a field of 4,300 and is the only woman selected in the final group of six. She begins astronaut training. She develops taste experiments with colleagues at NASA to fly on STS-41G and supports the flight crew during pre-flight training in Canada.

She is selected and trained as a Payload Specialist Candidate for the first International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1) Space Shuttle flight.

Dr. Bondar trains as the Prime Payload Specialist for IML-1.

From January 22 to 31, Dr. Bondar flies as Payload Specialist 1 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-42 as the first female Canadian astronaut and world's first neurologist in space, conducting over 40 physical and life science experiments.

Dr. Bondar is granted her medical license in the state of New Mexico, where she researches brain blood flow in simulated spaceflight bedrest studies.

Bondar leads an international research team working with NASA on the effects of microgravity on astronauts returning from spaceflight and similarities to human diseases on Earth. She accomplishes this while holding positions as Distinguished Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University); Visiting Research Scholar, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Visiting Research Scientist, Universities Space Research Association, Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas; and as a CIBC Distinguished Professor, School of Kinesiology, Western University, London, Ontario.

She publishes Touching the Earth, her book about her spaceflight (Key Porter).

She is an honours student in Professional Nature Photography at the Brooks Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, California.

Dr. Bondar serves as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Panel in the Health Protection Branch of Health Canada.

She establishes a sole proprietorship, Roberta Bondar Astronaut Enterprise (a nod to the Star Trek ship), and begins her entrepreneurial initiatives in professional nature and landscape photography, writing, professional speaking and environment education.

Dr. Bondar spends two years in the field photographing all of Canada's national parks. She curates a travelling exhibition of her large fine art landscape photographs from this project that travelled to many arts and culture organizations across the country to celebrate the millennium, which included the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

She serves as a member of the National Police Services National Advisory Committee, and continues her writing and photography.

Bondar is installed and serves as the ninth Chancellor of Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. She publishes The Arid Edge of Earth in 2006, a catalogue of her black-and-white and colour fine art photographic prints of the deserts of the world, including Arctic aerial and surface landscapes, and UNESCO world heritage sites in Libya.

Roberta chairs the Working Group on Environmental Education of the Curriculum Council for the Ontario Government, which accepts all the recommendations of the report for implementation in the Ontario public school system's curriculum.

She co-founds the Roberta Bondar Foundation, a registered Canadian charitable organization where she volunteers as its President and Scientific Advisor.

She photographs and produces privately commissioned exhibitions, and six publicly presented travelling exhibitions of her fine art photography for the Roberta Bondar Foundation.

Dr. Bondar is a member of the Governing Council of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya.

Roberta is the Patron of the Hoopers Africa Trust that develops and delivers educational programs and opportunities for at-risk young women in the Masai Mara, Kenya, inspiring them to pursue education and to care for their natural heritage.

She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of COM DEV International Ltd.

She focuses her work primarily on the project Space for Birds, exploring the flyways of endangered, near-threatened and declining avian species. She serves as a Principal Investigator with NASA (migratory birds), Earth Observation Team, International Space Station. Partners for this work also have included UNEP, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Parks Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service, Birds Canada and the Canadian Space Agency.

Dr. Bondar is invited to be part of Visual Voices: Artists & the Environment art installation in the Senate of Canada. She chose her iconic large, fine art aerial photograph, Endangered Shadows (2018), about endangered Whooping Cranes staging in Saskatchewan, which is now part of the Senate's permanent collection.

From the Space for Birds project, Bondar curates a travelling exhibition fusing art and science, Patterns and Parallels: The Great Imperative to Survive, which continues to travel across Canada.

In 2024, Dr. Bondar publishes Space for Birds: Patterns and Parallels of Beauty and Flight (Figure 1 Publishing), the culmination of over a decade of her research and photography. She pursues her writing, professional speaking engagements, photography and research on migratory birds with the Roberta Bondar Foundation.