10 Female Scientists of Color You Should Know

Ellen Ochoa (left) with fellow astronaut Donald R. McMonagle, in 1994 (Photo via NASA)

Ellen Ochoa

Born in Los Angeles in 1958, Ellen Ochoa always had a love for science. After finishing her high school education, she went on to earn her master’s degree and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University. She worked at both Sandia National Laboratories and the NASA Ames Research center. Ochoa is a co-holder on three patents, including one for an optical inspection system that detects defects in a repeating pattern. She has also written many different scientific and technical papers.

She was accepted into NASA’s astronaut program in 1991, and be

came the first female Hispanic astronaut. She flew on four shuttle missions, with roles as a mission specialist, payload commander, and flight engineer. All told, she logged nearly 1,000 hours of spaceflight.

During numerous missions, she operated the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) robot arm to capture satellites and help conduct work on spacewalks. Ochoa was a mission specialist on the STS-96 shuttle mission in 1999, which was the first shuttle to dock with the International Space Station.

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Ochoa is the recipient of NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal, the agency’s highest award, and has five schools named after her. In 2013, she became the director of the Johnson Space Center, becoming the first Hispanic person and only the second woman to occupy the position.