Chiaki Mukai

Chiaki Mukai is a Japanese physician who trained as a cardiovascular surgeon before becoming an astronaut. Born in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, in 1952, she earned her medical doctorate at the Keio University School of Medicine in 1977 and a doctorate in physiology there in 1988, and was board certified as a cardiovascular surgeon by the Japan Surgical Society in 1989. She worked as an assistant professor in the department of cardiovascular surgery at Keio University before the Japanese space agency selected her as an astronaut in 1985. She flew on Space Shuttle missions STS-65 in 1994 and STS-95 in 1998, becoming the first Japanese woman in space, and later became vice president of the Tokyo University of Science.