Marianne Merchez is a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 doctor from the Catholic University of Louvain and a former European Space Agency

European Astronaut Corps

The European Astronaut Corps is a unit of the European Space Agency that selects, trains, and provides astronauts as crew members on U.S. and Russian space missions. As of May 2010, 21 ESA astronauts have flown in space, including one female. There are currently 14 active members of the Corps. The...

 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....

.
She is certified in aerospace medicine and in industrial medicine, and she is also a professional pilot (holds a Belgian Air Transport Pilot License from Civil Aviation School, former co-pilot Boeing 737).

She has extensive experience as a consultant in human factors. Her predilection field is human relationships and communication and she integrates her training in brief systemic therapy and ericksonian hypnosis in daily personal and professional situations.
Her hobbies include classical music, walking, and cycling.
She is married to Italian astronaut Maurizio Cheli

Maurizio Cheli

Maurizio Cheli is an Italian engineer, air force officer, a European Space Agency astronaut and a veteran of one NASA space shuttle mission....

.

External links