Tamara E. Jernigan

Tamara Elizabeth Jernigan was born on May 7, 1959, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Mary and Terry Jernigan.[1] She attended Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe Springs, California, graduating in 1977. Jernigan attended Stanford University, where she played varsity volleyball. She earned a B.S. degree in physics in 1981 and an M.S. in engineering science in 1983. At the University of California, Berkeley, she received an M.S. in astronomy in 1985. In 1988, she was awarded a Ph.D. in space physics and astronomy from Rice University. Her research focused on the modeling of high-velocity outflows in regions of star formation, gamma-ray bursters, and the study of radiation produced by interstellar shock waves.[2]

Jernigan began working for NASA in June 1981 at the Ames Research Center while earning her degrees at Stanford and Berkeley. She worked in the Theoretical Studies Branch as a research scientist until June 1985 when she was among the 13 people selected as astronaut candidates.[3]

Tamara Jernigan performing EVA during STS-96

She entered the NASA Astronaut Corps in July 1986. Her first trip to space was on June 5, 1991.[4] She flew on five Space Shuttle program missions (three on Columbia[5][6][7] and one each on Endeavour[8] and Discovery[9]) and logged over 1512 hours in space. In her last mission on Discovery in 1999, she performed an extra-vehicular activity for 7 hours and 55.5 minutes.[10]

Jernigan has served as Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office, assisting with the management of both military and civilian astronauts and support personnel and as Deputy for the Space Station program where she developed and advocated Astronaut Office positions on the design and operation of the International Space Station. She also represented NASA management on the U.S. negotiating team in Moscow during technical interchange meetings designed to resolve crew training, crew rotation, and operational issues.[2]

Jernigan retired from NASA in 2001 and currently serves as Deputy Principal Associate Director in the Weapons and Complex Integration (WCI) organization at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.[1]

Jernigan is the recipient of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal.[2]

She currently resides in Pleasanton, California. She is married and has a child, Jeffrey Wisoff, with former astronaut Peter Wisoff. They both currently work at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

• NASA Biography

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