Canada's first woman in space to speak at university

Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first woman in space and internationally renowned neurologist, will give the Xstrata Nickel Memorial Lecture Thursday, March 22, at 7:30 pm, in the Fraser auditorium, on the Laurentian campus.

As the world’s first neurologist in space, Bondar is globally recognized for her pioneering contribution to space medicine. Aboard the 1992 Discovery mission, she conducted experiments in the shuttle’s first international microgravity laboratory.

For more than a decade at NASA, Bondar continued her research finding new connections between the brain recovering from a zero gravity environment and neurological disease. Her findings developed technology that has been used in clinical studies at Harvard Medical School.

Bondar is also a photographer of the natural wonders of our planet. She is the author of three books featuring her stunning photography of the Earth both from space and on the ground.

Admission to this lecture is free and tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis, at the following locations throughout the Sudbury region: Laurentian University Bookstore and J.N. Desmarais Library; Science North; Cambrian College's registrar's office; Collège Boréal registrar's office; and most branches of the Greater Sudbury Public Library.

On Dec. 14, Xstrata Nickel announced the contribution of $100,000 to the university in order to permanently endow the Xstrata Nickel Memorial Lecture Series. In turn, the university matched that amount with funds that were in the Falconbridge Lecture trust account.

The Falconbridge Lectures were established in 1978 with donations made by Falconbridge employees, families and friends in memory of five employees who died in an aircraft accident, near Barrie on Sept.7, 1977.