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Dr Mary Ellen Weber Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Mission Specialist. Sex: Female. Marital Status: Married. Birth Date: 24 August 1962. Birth City: Cleveland. Birth State: Ohio. Birth Country: USA. Nationality: American. Degree: PhD. Group: 1992 NASA Group. Date Selected: 31 March 1992. Number of Flights: 2. Total Time: 18.77 days.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Mary Ellen Weber, Ph.D.
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:
Born August 24, 1962 in Cleveland, Ohio, and Bedford Heights, Ohio is her hometown. She is married to Jerome L. Elkind, whose hometown is Bayonne, New Jersey. She is an avid skydiver, and also enjoys scuba diving and flying. Her mother, Joan Weber, currently resides in Mentor, Ohio; her father, Andrew Weber, Jr., is deceased.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from Bedford High School in 1980; received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1984, and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988.

EXPERIENCE:
During her undergraduate studies at Purdue, Dr. Weber was an engineering intern at Ohio Edison, Delco Electronics, and 3M. In her doctoral research at Berkeley, she explored single-collision ion-molecule reactions involving silicon. She then joined Texas Instruments to research new techniques in microelectronics manufacturing, applying models of film growth to improve reactor designs. She was assigned by Texas Instruments to SEMATECH, a U.S. semiconductor manufacturing consortium, and subsequently to Applied Materials and Technology, to develop a world-class high-density plasma reactor, which went into production in 1993. To date, she has received one patent and published eight technical papers.

Dr. Weber has logged over 2,500 skydives since 1983. She received a silver medal in the U.S. National Skydiving Championships, 20-way freefall formation event, in both 1995 and 1991, and was in the world's largest freefall formation, a 297-way, in 1996. She is also an instrument-rated pilot.

NASA EXPERIENCE:
Dr. Weber was selected by NASA in the fourteenth group of astronauts, and reported to the Johnson Space Center in 1992. In her technical assignments within the Astronaut Office, she has assisted in the processing and launch of Shuttles at the Kennedy Space Center, and in payload and robotics development. In administrative assignments, she was chairman of the Source Evaluation Board for procurement of a biotechnology contract, and member of the Station Research Facilities Assessment Review Team. She is currently assigned to Legislative Affairs at NASA Headquarters, as a liaison to Congress.

Dr. Weber flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-70, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center on July 13, 1995, and returned there July 22, 1995. The five-member crew deployed the sixth NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, and performed a myriad of scientific experiments. Dr. Weber's primary roles were in check out and deploy of the satellite, operation of biotechnology experiments, and as contingency spacewalk crew member, flight crew, and medical officer. During this nine-day mission, Discovery completed 142 orbits of the Earth and traveled 3.7 million miles.

FEBRUARY 1997

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