Sally Ride, Ph.D., professor of physics (Space Sciences) at the University of California at San Diego (currently on leave and running her own company.) Her interest is encouraging elementary school students to study science, and her company Sally Ride Science (which she founded in 2001) creates entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students, with a particular focus on girls."There were a lot of preconceptions back then. I think that, whether in sports or whether in career choice, there were definitely preconceptions that girls didn't participate in sports other than swimming and tennis and golf. They probably didn't like them, or they would probably get hurt playing them or something, and that women didn't go on to become lawyers or doctors, much less scientists or engineers, and my parents, I think, were unusual in that they didn't hold those preconceptions.
[Doctor Ride was the first American woman in outer space. (1983, aboard Challenger; and again in 1984, also on Challenger.) She has over 343 cummulative hours in space.]
Fun facts about Sally:1. She answered a NASA advertisement for astronauts, along with over 8,000 other people. They picked her.
2. Her doctorate is in Astrophysics. She is smarter than even Relax Max.
3. She dropped out of college at Swarthmore to pursue a career in professional tennis. It took her 4 months to realize her mistake.
4. She helped design the mechanical arm on the space shuttle which puts satellites into space.
5. She served on the investigating boards of both the Challenger and Colombia disasters.
6, She has written 5 books for children on the subject of space exploration.
