This year’s UCLA College commencement speaker alumna Anna Fisher was recently profiled in The Washington Post.
The article, published on May 11 to coincide with Mother’s Day, goes into depth about Fisher’s experience of being the first mother in space. Read the article here.
Fisher earned a B.S. in chemistry from UCLA in 1971 and an M.D. in 1976 before being chosen an astronaut in 1978. After her space flight in 1984, she obtained an M.S. in chemistry from UCLA in 1987. Fisher was so devoted to her space job that she gave birth to her oldest child, Kristin, on a Friday and attended a NASA meeting the following Monday in preparation for her flight. She retired from NASA in 2017.
This year Fisher will be the distinguished speaker for the UCLA College commencement on Friday, June 14. She is among UCLA’s icons featured in its Optimists campaign and is a very active member of the UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Chair’s Council
Fisher returns to UCLA often. In 2015, she spoke at the first meeting of the popular Careers in Chemistry and Biochemistry course for undergraduates and, in 2017, she received UCLA’s first Science and Education Pioneer award at the Exploring Your Universe festival at UCLA.
Dr. Anna Fisher speaks with undergraduate students at reception after the first Careers in Chemistry & Biochemistry class in 2015.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
