Living and Working in Space – Lecture, Nov. 8
Astronaut Shannon Walker, Daughter of Founding NSM Dean, to Present to Students and Faculty

NASA astronaut Shannon Walker works in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station.

University of Houston students, faculty and the public will have the chance to hear firsthand about living, working and doing scientific research on the International Space Station (ISS).

Shannon Walker, the first native-Houstonian astronaut, will talk about her five-month mission as a crewmember on ISS Expeditions 24 and 25. The presentation will be Nov. 8, from 3 – 3:50 p.m., at the UH Science & Engineering Classroom Building (SEC), Room 100. Walker will discuss preparing for and living on the ISS, research on the space station, and NASA’s future. 

Though she holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in physics and space physics from Rice University, Walker has close ties to UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM). Her father, R. Hugh Walker, was the founding dean of NSM and served as a professor of physics.

During the lecture, Walker will present NSM with a poster flown in space commemorating her mission and paying tribute to her father. The poster praises Hugh Walker as someone who believed in the limitless potential of UH’s students and faculty, as well as for inspiring them to dream big and reach for the stars. 

Walker spent a total of 163 days in space, 161 of them aboard the space station. She launched on June 15, 2010, serving as flight engineer (co-pilot) of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and returned to Earth on November 25, 2010.

Event Details

- Kathy Major, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics