Mr. Franklin Chang-Diaz
Dr. Chang is a citizen of both Costa Rica and the United States and is an Astronaut of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He has made seven space flights (a record shared with one other Astronaut), and logged over 1,500 hours in space. Dr. Chang is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and the Massachussets Institute of Technology, where he specialized in plasma physics and fusion technologies. He is presently Director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and is working on the design of a plasma rocket to power a spacecraft to Mars. Dr. Chang was a Visiting Scientist at M.I.T. Plasma Fusion Center from 1983 to 1993, and is an Adjunct Professor of Physics at Rice University and the University of Houston.
Dr. Chang also worked for 2 ½ years as a house manager in an experimental community residence for de-institutionalizing chronic mental patients, and was heavily involved as an instructor/advisor with a rehabilitation program for hispanic drug abusers in Massachussetts.
As a tribute to his achievements, the Government of Costa Rica and its Public Universities established the Dr. Franklin Chang Center for High Technology in 1997.
