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Date of birth: Place of birth:
Calling:
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Photo : Agence spatiale canadienne
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Julie Payette completed her
primary and secondary schooling in Montreal. She
obtained an International Baccalaureate (1982) at
the United World College of the Atlantic, in Wales
(U.K.), and a B.A in Electrical Engineering from
McGill University (1986) and a Master's of Applied
Science from the University of Toronto
(1990).
Her studies were marked by
honorary distinctions: in 1980, she was one of six
recipients of a Canadian grant for study at the
United World College of the Atlantic. She was
awarded McGill University's Greville-Smith
fellowship (1982-1986)(the highest undergraduate
distinction). The Faculty of Engineering named her
Faculty Scholar and awarded her a diploma with
distinction in 1986. In 1988-1990, she received a
fellowship for graduate study from the Natural
Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
and a Massey College Fellowship from the University
of Toronto. In 1994, the Canadian Council of
Callingal Engineers honoured her with its
Exceptional Achievement award for young engineers.
She is a polyglot, speaking English and French
perfectly and able to converse in Italian, Spanish
and Russian. A pianist and choir singer, she has
performed with the Chamber Choir of the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra, with the Placere Vocale de
Bâle (Switzerland) and the Tafelmusik Baroque
Orchestra Choir (Toronto).
From 1986 to 1992, Julie
Payette worked at IBM Canada. She participated in a
project on the architecture of high performance
computers; she was invited as a scientist by the
IBM research laboratories to Zurich, Switzerland,
and subsequently she joined a research group with
Bell Northern in Montreal.
In June 1992, her career took
flight again: she was selected as an astronaut by
the Canadian Space Agency. She completed her basic
training in Canada and then worked as a technical
adviser for the International Space Station Mobile
Servicing System (MSS). She participated from 1993
to 1996 in various research groups (Interaction
personne-ordinateur and the Canadian Astronaut
Office) and on speech processing (NATO). She
completed training in weightless flight, deep water
dives and for an instrument flight operator. She
obtained her pilot's qualifications on the Tutor
military jet at CFB Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan in
1996. From August 1996 to April 1998, she trained
as a mission specialist at the Johnson Space Centre
in the United States.
May 1999 was the culmination
of her career, when she realized the dreams of her
youth. She was a member of the STS-96 mission and
flew on the Discovery space shuttle. She became the
first Canadian to visit and work on board the
international space station. Julie Payette has
entered into legend and become a source of
inspiration for many young people.
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