Jessica Meir
Encyclopedia
Jessica Ulrika Meir is a post-doctoral researcher in comparative physiology
with the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia
in Vancouver
, British Columbia
, Canada
. She has a Ph.D.
in marine biology
from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
. She has studied the diving physiology and behavior of emperor penguin
s in Antarctica, and the physiology of bar-headed geese
, which are able to migrate over the Himalayas
. She formerly worked for Lockheed Martin
Space Operations as an experiment support scientist for the Human Research Facility at NASA
's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas
. In September 2002, Meir served as an aquanaut
on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations
4 (NEEMO 4) crew.
, a small town in northern Maine
(the most northeastern city in the United States
). She was active in many activities while growing up. Meir played on basketball, softball, tennis, and soccer teams, but soccer was her favorite sport. She played the flute and piccolo in concert band and the saxophone in jazz band, and participated in a variety of school clubs and organizations. After being interested in space since she was a small child, Meir was thrilled to attend Purdue University
's space camp when she was thirteen. She was certain that this would be her first concrete step toward a future career in the space industry
.
Although many of her friends remained in Maine to go to college, Meir attended Brown University
in Providence, Rhode Island
. She majored in biology
and kept up with her interests in space as well. In the summer before her sophomore
year at Brown, Meir had the opportunity to participate in the Space and Life Sciences Training Program (SLSTP) at Kennedy Space Center
(KSC) in Florida
. This was a six-week-long program, spent attending lectures on various space-related science topics, going on tours of the KSC facilities and conducting her own research project.
Meir also spent one of her semesters as an undergraduate student in a study abroad program in Stockholm
, Sweden
. With her mother coming from Sweden, and her father from Israel
, Meir traveled quite a bit outside the United States while growing up. This semester abroad provided her with an opportunity to live and study in a foreign country, as well as to explore her mother's home country.
During her senior year at Brown, Meir and a few other students decided to submit a proposal for NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities program. This program gives undergraduates a chance to design an experiment, and if selected, fly their experiment on NASA's KC-135 aircraft. By flying in a parabolic flight pattern, 20-30 second periods of microgravity (weightlessness) are created within the aircraft. This allows researchers to conduct experiments and operations in microgravity without being in space. Astronauts also use this aircraft for training. Meir's Brown team's experiment was selected, and they had the opportunity to experience microgravity for the first time.
After graduating from Brown University, Meir obtained a Master of Space Studies degree from the International Space University
in Strasbourg
, France
in 2000. The year-long program offers a multidisciplinary education, ranging from law to politics, life sciences, and engineering, all from the space perspective. Meir spent the year learning about space with students from over 20 different countries. She also had the opportunity to experience microgravity again that year, this time on CNES
's (the French Space Agency) A-300 aircraft as an assistant researcher and subject in a study on echocardiography
doppler
. Meir's thesis
topic for her master's degree was "Autonomous lunar transport vehicle: providing a link for scientific research".
's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas
. She worked for Lockheed Martin
Space Operations as an experiment support scientist for the Human Research Facility at the NASA
Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas
. Meir coordinated and supported human space life science experiments that were performed by astronaut
s on space shuttle
and International Space Station
(ISS) missions. These experiments included physiological studies (bone loss, muscle control/atrophy, lung function, etc.) to determine if any bodily processes were altered in the spaceflight environment. Meir guided these experiments through the necessary review cycles, developed procedures that the astronauts would use on-orbit, trained crew members, and provided ground support in the Mission Control Center while the astronauts were performing the experiments on the shuttle or ISS.
In September 2002, Meir served as an aquanaut
on the joint NASA-NOAA NEEMO 4 expedition (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations), an exploration research mission held in Aquarius
, the world's only undersea research laboratory
, four miles off shore from Key Largo
. Meir and her crewmates spent five days saturation diving
from the Aquarius habitat as a space analogue
for working and training under extreme environmental conditions. The mission was delayed due to Hurricane Isadore, forcing National Undersea Research Center managers to shorten it to an underwater duration of five days. Then, three days into their underwater mission, the crew members were told that Tropical Storm Lili
was headed in their direction and to prepare for an early departure from Aquarius. Fortunately, Lili degenerated to the point where it was no longer a threat, so the crew was able to remain the full five days.
At the time of NEEMO 4, Meir was leaning toward pursuing a PhD
in a field related to evolutionary biology and/or life in extreme environment
s (astrobiology
). She was also fascinated by marine biology
(which suited the NEEMO
mission well), and hoped to coordinate a specific topic of study to combine these main interests.
Meir was a semi-finalist for selection as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 20
.
. Her Ph.D. research involved the diving physiology of emperor penguin
s and northern elephant seal
s. Meir spent time in Antarctica at a site called Penguin Ranch furthering her research into the diving abilities of the emperor penguin, scuba diving
alongside the penguins under the ice. She also studied elephant seals while they were diving in the Pacific Ocean
off Northern California
.
Meir's current research involves bar-headed geese
, which are able to tolerate extreme altitudes and low oxygen levels while flying over the Himalayas
. Meir traveled to the Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park in Scotland Neck, North Carolina
so that the geese who would become her experimental subjects could imprint
on her after their hatching. Meir plans to conduct wind-tunnel
experiments with the geese to simulate the low-oxygen conditions of their flight paths over the Himalayas and learn more about their adaptation to high altitudes. In 2009, Meir was awarded a National Science Foundation
International Research Post-doctoral Fellowship for this work.
Meir is a member of the science advisory board of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation. Through that organization, she is hoping to establish a survey of bar-headed geese in the Himalayas to be carried out by adventurers and Sherpas
.
Meir's favorite books when she was young were The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(C.S. Lewis), Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
(Mildred D. Taylor
), Where the Red Fern Grows
(Wilson Rawls
), and To Kill a Mockingbird
(Harper Lee
). Her favorites as an adult include Oscar Wilde
's The Picture of Dorian Gray
, Leo Tolstoy
's Anna Karenina
, and Feodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment
.
Comparative physiology
Comparative physiology is a subdiscipline of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary physiology and environmental physiology. Many universities offer undergraduate courses that cover...
with the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. She has a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in marine biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, is one of the oldest and largest centers for ocean and earth science research, graduate training, and public service in the world...
. She has studied the diving physiology and behavior of emperor penguin
Emperor Penguin
The Emperor Penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in height and weighing anywhere from . The dorsal side and head are black and sharply delineated from the white belly,...
s in Antarctica, and the physiology of bar-headed geese
Bar-headed Goose
The Bar-headed Goose is a goose which breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a time in a ground nest....
, which are able to migrate over the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
. She formerly worked for Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
Space Operations as an experiment support scientist for the Human Research Facility at NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. In September 2002, Meir served as an aquanaut
Aquanaut
An Aquanaut is any individual who remains underwater, exposed to the ambient pressure, long enough to come into equilibrium with his or her breathing media. Usually this is done in an underwater habitat on the seafloor for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to...
on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations
NEEMO
NEEMO, an acronym for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, is a NASA program for studying human survival in the Aquarius underwater laboratory in preparation for future space exploration....
4 (NEEMO 4) crew.
Education and career path
Meir grew up in CaribouCaribou, Maine
Caribou is the second largest city in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. Its population was 8,189 at the 2010 census.-History:Between 1838 and 1839, the undeclared Aroostook War flared between the United States and Canada, and the Battle of Caribou occurred in December 1838...
, a small town in northern Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
(the most northeastern city in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
). She was active in many activities while growing up. Meir played on basketball, softball, tennis, and soccer teams, but soccer was her favorite sport. She played the flute and piccolo in concert band and the saxophone in jazz band, and participated in a variety of school clubs and organizations. After being interested in space since she was a small child, Meir was thrilled to attend Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
's space camp when she was thirteen. She was certain that this would be her first concrete step toward a future career in the space industry
Space industry
Space industry refers to economic activities related to manufacturing components that go into Earth's orbit or beyond, delivering them to those regions, and related services. Owing to the prominence of the satellite-related activities, some sources use the term satellite industry interchangeably...
.
Although many of her friends remained in Maine to go to college, Meir attended Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. She majored in biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and kept up with her interests in space as well. In the summer before her sophomore
Sophomore
Sophomore is a term used in the United States to describe a student in the second year of study at high school or university.The word is also used as a synonym for "second", for the second album or EP released by a musician or group, the second movie of a director, or the second season of a...
year at Brown, Meir had the opportunity to participate in the Space and Life Sciences Training Program (SLSTP) at Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
(KSC) in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. This was a six-week-long program, spent attending lectures on various space-related science topics, going on tours of the KSC facilities and conducting her own research project.
Meir also spent one of her semesters as an undergraduate student in a study abroad program in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. With her mother coming from Sweden, and her father from Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Meir traveled quite a bit outside the United States while growing up. This semester abroad provided her with an opportunity to live and study in a foreign country, as well as to explore her mother's home country.
During her senior year at Brown, Meir and a few other students decided to submit a proposal for NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities program. This program gives undergraduates a chance to design an experiment, and if selected, fly their experiment on NASA's KC-135 aircraft. By flying in a parabolic flight pattern, 20-30 second periods of microgravity (weightlessness) are created within the aircraft. This allows researchers to conduct experiments and operations in microgravity without being in space. Astronauts also use this aircraft for training. Meir's Brown team's experiment was selected, and they had the opportunity to experience microgravity for the first time.
After graduating from Brown University, Meir obtained a Master of Space Studies degree from the International Space University
International Space University
The International Space University is a private university founded in 1987. The University currently offers three degree granting programs — Master of Science in Space Management, Master of Science in Space Studies and Executive MBA — in addition to a non-degree-granting Space Studies Program.The...
in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 2000. The year-long program offers a multidisciplinary education, ranging from law to politics, life sciences, and engineering, all from the space perspective. Meir spent the year learning about space with students from over 20 different countries. She also had the opportunity to experience microgravity again that year, this time on CNES
CNES
The is the French government space agency . Established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961, its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is under the supervision of the French Ministries of Defence and Research...
's (the French Space Agency) A-300 aircraft as an assistant researcher and subject in a study on echocardiography
Echocardiography
An echocardiogram, often referred to in the medical community as a cardiac ECHO or simply an ECHO, is a sonogram of the heart . Also known as a cardiac ultrasound, it uses standard ultrasound techniques to image two-dimensional slices of the heart...
doppler
Doppler
-Doppler effect and its applications:* Doppler effect* Doppler beaming* Doppler broadening* Doppler cooling** Doppler cooling limit* Doppler echocardiography** Doppler ultrasound, also called Doppler sonography** Transcranial doppler* Doppler fetal monitor...
. Meir's thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
topic for her master's degree was "Autonomous lunar transport vehicle: providing a link for scientific research".
NASA career
Meir worked for three years at NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. She worked for Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
Space Operations as an experiment support scientist for the Human Research Facility at the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. Meir coordinated and supported human space life science experiments that were performed by astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s on space shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
and International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
(ISS) missions. These experiments included physiological studies (bone loss, muscle control/atrophy, lung function, etc.) to determine if any bodily processes were altered in the spaceflight environment. Meir guided these experiments through the necessary review cycles, developed procedures that the astronauts would use on-orbit, trained crew members, and provided ground support in the Mission Control Center while the astronauts were performing the experiments on the shuttle or ISS.
In September 2002, Meir served as an aquanaut
Aquanaut
An Aquanaut is any individual who remains underwater, exposed to the ambient pressure, long enough to come into equilibrium with his or her breathing media. Usually this is done in an underwater habitat on the seafloor for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to...
on the joint NASA-NOAA NEEMO 4 expedition (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations), an exploration research mission held in Aquarius
Aquarius (laboratory)
The NOAA Aquarius Reef Base is an underwater habitat located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, adjacent to Conch Reef. It is one of the few underwater research facilities in the world dedicated to science...
, the world's only undersea research laboratory
Underwater habitat
Underwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping...
, four miles off shore from Key Largo
Key Largo
Key Largo is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and, at long, the largest of the Keys. It is also the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the Keys connected by U.S. Highway 1...
. Meir and her crewmates spent five days saturation diving
Saturation diving
Saturation diving is a diving technique that allows divers to reduce the risk of decompression sickness when they work at great depth for long periods of time....
from the Aquarius habitat as a space analogue
Human analog missions
Human analog missions are activities undertaken on Earth in various environments to simulate aspects of human missions to other worlds, including the Moon, asteroids, and Mars. These remote field tests are performed in locations that are identified based on their physical similarities to the...
for working and training under extreme environmental conditions. The mission was delayed due to Hurricane Isadore, forcing National Undersea Research Center managers to shorten it to an underwater duration of five days. Then, three days into their underwater mission, the crew members were told that Tropical Storm Lili
Hurricane Lili
Hurricane Lili was the deadliest and costliest hurricane of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season for the United States. Lili was the twelfth named storm, fourth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm developed from a tropical disturbance in the open...
was headed in their direction and to prepare for an early departure from Aquarius. Fortunately, Lili degenerated to the point where it was no longer a threat, so the crew was able to remain the full five days.
At the time of NEEMO 4, Meir was leaning toward pursuing a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in a field related to evolutionary biology and/or life in extreme environment
Extreme environment
An extreme environment exhibits extreme conditions which are challenging to most life forms. These may be extremely high or low ranges of temperature, radiation, pressure, acidity, alkalinity, air, water, salt, sugar, carbon dioxide, sulphur, petroleum and many others.An extreme environment is one...
s (astrobiology
Astrobiology
Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. This interdisciplinary field encompasses the search for habitable environments in our Solar System and habitable planets outside our Solar System, the search for evidence of prebiotic chemistry,...
). She was also fascinated by marine biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
(which suited the NEEMO
NEEMO
NEEMO, an acronym for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, is a NASA program for studying human survival in the Aquarius underwater laboratory in preparation for future space exploration....
mission well), and hoped to coordinate a specific topic of study to combine these main interests.
Meir was a semi-finalist for selection as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 20
NASA Astronaut Group 20
NASA Astronaut Group 20 saw the training of nine mission specialists, and five international mission specialists to become NASA astronauts. These 14 astronauts began training in August 2009 and officially graduated as astronauts on 4 November 2011....
.
Comparative physiology research
Meir earned a Ph.D. from the Scripps Institution of OceanographyScripps Institution of Oceanography
Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, is one of the oldest and largest centers for ocean and earth science research, graduate training, and public service in the world...
. Her Ph.D. research involved the diving physiology of emperor penguin
Emperor Penguin
The Emperor Penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in height and weighing anywhere from . The dorsal side and head are black and sharply delineated from the white belly,...
s and northern elephant seal
Northern Elephant Seal
The northern elephant seal is one of two species of elephant seal . It is a member of the family Phocidae . Elephant seals derive their name from their great size and from the male's large proboscis, which is used in making extraordinarily loud roaring noises, especially during the mating...
s. Meir spent time in Antarctica at a site called Penguin Ranch furthering her research into the diving abilities of the emperor penguin, scuba diving
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
alongside the penguins under the ice. She also studied elephant seals while they were diving in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
off Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
.
Meir's current research involves bar-headed geese
Bar-headed Goose
The Bar-headed Goose is a goose which breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a time in a ground nest....
, which are able to tolerate extreme altitudes and low oxygen levels while flying over the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
. Meir traveled to the Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park in Scotland Neck, North Carolina
Scotland Neck, North Carolina
Scotland Neck is a town in Halifax County, North Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 2,362. It is part of the Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
so that the geese who would become her experimental subjects could imprint
Imprinting (psychology)
Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior...
on her after their hatching. Meir plans to conduct wind-tunnel
Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
experiments with the geese to simulate the low-oxygen conditions of their flight paths over the Himalayas and learn more about their adaptation to high altitudes. In 2009, Meir was awarded a National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
International Research Post-doctoral Fellowship for this work.
Meir is a member of the science advisory board of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation. Through that organization, she is hoping to establish a survey of bar-headed geese in the Himalayas to be carried out by adventurers and Sherpas
Sherpa people
The Sherpa are an ethnic group from the most mountainous region of Nepal, high in the Himalayas. Sherpas migrated from the Kham region in eastern Tibet to Nepal within the last 300–400 years.The initial mountainous migration from Tibet was a search for beyul...
.
Personal life
Meir has a private pilot's license, and also skydives. Meir enjoys scuba diving, hiking, skiing, playing soccer, softball and other sports, traveling and studying foreign languages.Meir's favorite books when she was young were The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis. Published in 1950 and set circa 1940, it is the first-published book of The Chronicles of Narnia and is the best known book of the series. Although it was written and published first, it is second in the series'...
(C.S. Lewis), Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a 1976 children's novel by Mildred D. Taylor. The novel won the 1977 Newbery Medal. Its sequel, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, was released in 1981. It also has a prequel in 1975, Song of the Trees...
(Mildred D. Taylor
Mildred D. Taylor
Mildred DeLois Taylor is an African American author, known for her works exploring the struggle faced by African-American families in the Deep South....
), Where the Red Fern Grows
Where the Red Fern Grows
Where the Red Fern Grows is a children's novel written by Wilson Rawls about a boy who buys and trains two Redbone Coonhound hunting dogs. This book is a popular choice for early middle school reading classes, with a reading level appropriate to grades 4 and up.-Plot summary:Before leaving work one...
(Wilson Rawls
Wilson Rawls
Wilson Rawls, born Woodrow Wilson Rawls, was an American writer best known for his books Where the Red Fern Grows and Summer of the Monkeys.- Childhood :...
), and To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature...
(Harper Lee
Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee is an American author known for her 1960 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama...
). Her favorites as an adult include Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel by Oscar Wilde, appearing as the lead story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890, printed as the July 1890 issue of this magazine...
, Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
's Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger...
, and Feodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his...
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