A pioneer, an icon and the first British astronaut. Dr Helen Sharman (OBE, CMG, FRSC) is a chemist who became the first Briton in space and the first woman to visit the Mir space station.
The Soyuz TM-12 mission launched on 18 May 1991 and lasted eight days during which Helen worked on medical and agricultural tests aboard Mir and participated in a radio link up with British schoolchildren.
These days Helen remains an avid communicator of scientific ideas around chemistry and spaceflight and is based at the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London.
Helen will appear at Latitude this year as part of the festival programme in the Cosmic Shambles Forest of Science and Culture. Get tickets at the link below.