Ellen Ochoa

OCHOA, Ellen, Hispanic American, optical recognition and interpreter systems specialist, b-1958. A physicist with a strong music background and scientific interest. Ellen was merely 11 when the first astronaut walked the moon, yet in 1993 she flew on the space shuttle Discovery as a specialist. Since her PhD in 1985 (in electrical engineering), she has been designing optical systems that analyse and interpret things they see so that they make conclusions about the objects. Such systems are vital to space missions. A co-inventor of patents in these areas, of  inspection, identification, recognition/minimisation of optical distortions. Ellen has been on various space missions since 1993, and has been particularly involved in studies of the ozone layer and the effect of the Sun on Earth’s climate.