Dr Jay Apt holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a doctorate from MIT in experimental physics. His research career included atomic physics, lasers, and studying the planets and moons of our solar system.

Apt learned to fly in college, and has flown over 5,000 hours since, in 25 types of aircraft. He has piloted his own airplane to such destinations as Greenland and Guatemala, England and Alaska.

He was selected as a NASA Astronaut in 1985, has spent more than 35 days in space on four Space Shuttle missions, and has performed two space walks (one an emergency rescue of a satellite). He has been to the Russian space station Mir, and is the recipient of NASA’s highest medal.

Dr Apt is Executive Director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Centre at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, where he is a Distinguished Service Professor.

His book Orbit: NASA Astronauts Photograph the Earth has sold more than 600,000 copies in 11 languages.