“This is really an honor for me” said American Greg Olsen, “I’m a big ‘education’ person and to achieve a degree like this is remarkable.” The award ceremony took place in Washington, DC at a dinner whose proceeds will support scholarships for future ISU students.
After an illustrious career as a research scientist and entrepreneur, Olsen underwent five months of training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow, and on October 1, 2005, he was launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket, a self-funded trip into space and to the ISS arranged through the U.S. firm Space Adventures.
Dr. Olsen logged over 150 orbits of the earth, almost 4 million miles of weightless travel while conducting scientific experiments during his 10 days in space. Now as president of GHO Ventures in Princeton, New Jersey, he manages his “angel” investments and speaks regularly to encourage children, especially minorities and females, to consider careers in science and engineering.
During the presentation to Dr. Olsen, ISU President Dr. Michael Simpson remarked that an extensive review took place in deciding to award the degree, granted only six times previously in ISU’s history. The review involved ISU’s Academic Council, two different committees of the ISU Board of Trustees, and the full Board itself. Every one of these bodies approved, said Dr. Simpson, on the strength of “your record; the fact that you were willing to pioneer the idea of personal scientific work in space by a private person, (and) that you were willing to take on this burden in the shadow of the Columbia (tragedy).”
Since its founding on the campus of MIT in 1987, with noted author and visionary Sir Arthur C. Clarke as its first Chancellor, ISU has graduated more than 2,900 students from 100 countries, many now in senior positions with commercial and government space-related organizations throughout the globe.