MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER: ULRICH WALTER

In April 1993 Ulrich Walter successfully completed his assignment as a science astronaut and research specialist to the German D-2 Mission - his first space flight.

He has lived through an experience most of his fellow scientists are unlikely ever to go through themselves, travelling in space for 10 days with the space shuttle COLUMBIA and the European Station SPACELAB.

Dr. Ulrich Walter, born in Iserlohn, Germany in 1954, graduated in Solid State Physics at the University of Cologne in 1980 where he also gained his PhD five years later in the same speciality.

Before his studies Ulrich Walter joined the German Federal Armed Forces where he served as an instructor and Lieutenant at the Army Air Defence School.

He held a postdoctoral position at the Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago and a research fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley sponsored by the German Research Society. In 1987 he was appointed Head of the research team "Tunnelling Microscopy" at the University of Darmstadt and became a member of the neutron scattering team at the University of Cologne.

In the same year he was nominated a German Science Astronaut - having been selected out of 1800 applicants. His first training as a science astronaut at the DLR (German Aerospace Agency) started in March 1988. He was then assigned to the German D-2 Mission in 1990 and underwent further training at the NASA headquarters in 1992-1993 prior to the shuttle flight.

Ulrich Walter is a highly entertaining motivational speaker. In his speeches he can cover all aspects of the flight, either focusing on the technical-scientific or the human-psychological challenge: from the very first challenge of being selected, the requirements and tests used, as well as the physical and mental training situations.

He shows wonderful pictures of the journey, "90 Minutes around the World", illustrating the situation on board the shuttle.