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Contact: Julie Navejar
kajam03@tamuk.edu or 361-593-2590

Astronaut Chiao to visit as lectureship series speaker

Chiao

KINGSVILLE (February 16, 2006) — Dr. Leroy Chiao has logged over 229 days in space and spent hours on spacewalks, but now he will spend time at Texas A&M University-Kingsville as this year’s speaker for the University Lectureship Series. Chiao’s visit, Sunday, March 5, will include a dinner and reception. The event is co-sponsored by the Asian Pacific Heritage Committee.

The evening begins at 5:30 p.m., with a reception in the ballrooms of the Memorial Student Union Building. Dinner is served at 6 p.m., also in the ballrooms. The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Auditorium.

Tickets are on sale now for both the dinner and lecture at the information desk of the Memorial Student Union Building. Dinner tickets, which include preferred seating at the lecture, are $10 for students with a valid university identification card and $20 for the general public.

General admission for the lecture is $5. There is no charge for university faculty, staff and students. Children under 17 also are admitted free.

Following the lecture, there will be a brief reception at the Ben Bailey Art Gallery, located adjacent to Jones Auditorium.

Chiao is an entrepreneur, consultant and public speaker. He has extensive experience as an astronaut for NASA and prior to that, as a research engineer. Currently, he applies his vast aerospace and engineering expertise to both the commercial and academic sectors as a consultant, public speaker and leadership coach.

Chiao is a veteran of four space missions, most recently as commander of Expedition 10 aboard the International Space Station. He has logged over 229 days in space and over 36 hours in extra-vehicular activity or spacewalks.

His space flight experience includes Columbia, July 8-23, 1994; Endeavour, Jan. 11-20, 1996; Discovery, Oct. 11-24, 2000; and Soyuz TMA-5/International Space Station, Oct. 13, 2004 through April 24, 2005.

He is a native English speaker, but also speaks Russian and Mandarin Chinese. He has flown space missions and worked closely with Russian, Japanese and European astronauts. Chiao is a fully certified co-pilot of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and an expert in all facets of United States and Russian extra-vehicular activity hardware and operations.

Chiao earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his master’s and doctorate at the University of California at Santa Barbara. All are in chemical engineering. Prior to joining NASA in 1990, Chiao worked as a research engineer at Hexcel Corporation and then at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

He has received several awards from NASA, including the Distinguished Service Medal, four Space Flight Medals, two Exceptional Service Awards, four Individual Achievement Awards, two Group Achievement Awards and the Going the Extra Mile Award.

Chiao was honored with the Koroliev Diploma, Komarov Diploma and De La Vaulx Medal from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale Awards. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Borradaile Award and Alumnus of the Year Award from Phi Kappa Tau.

For more information, call 361-593-3612.

This page last updated 17 February, 2006