Jessica Meir

About

Physiologist and Harvard professor who was accepted into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s astronaut program in 2013.

Before Fame

After earning a Master's degree from France's International Space University, she received a PhD in physiology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California.

Trivia

She conducted research on the physiology of northern elephant seals, emperor penguins, and bar-headed geese. She became a dual American and Swedish citizen, and was the second Swedish citizen in space, as well as the first Swedish female citizen in space.

Family Life

She grew up in Caribou, Maine. She later attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She was born to a Swedish mother and an Israeli father.

Associated With

Prior to becoming an astronaut, she worked as a NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) aquanaut. Fellow astronaut Thomas Marshburn also began his NASA career as a NEEMO aquanaut.