Katherine Thornton

Kathryn Ryan Cordell Thornton (born August 17, 1952) is an American scientist and a former NASA astronaut with over 975 hours in space, including 21 hours of extravehicular activity. She was the associate dean for graduate programs at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, currently a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Quotes

• Sometimes you are lucky enough in life to meet someone who changes you for the better
  • "Katherine Thornton – Sometimes You Are Lucky Enough In Life…", IES abroad (July 8, 2013)

• The past is constantly affecting the present, and there are few places that illustrate this fact better than Rome.
  • "Katherine Thornton – Sometimes You Are Lucky Enough In Life…", IES abroad (July 8, 2013)

"Katherine Thornton – Sometimes You Are Lucky Enough In Life…" (2013)

"Former Astronaut & Space Foundation Chairwoman Kathryn C. Thornton: 5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create an Inclusive, Representative and Equitable Society", Medium.com (August 5, 2020)

• The best leaders recognize the talents of each individual and bring those talents out of those people so they can apply them to problems.

• Just being prepared is the best you can expect from yourself.

• You can increase diversity in the workplace by looking beyond the select few schools deemed 'elite'

• We all have a role to play in ensuring equality and justice for all our brothers and sisters

• The big secret is that academia doesn’t measure all the qualities of what makes a great contributor to society, such as in engineering. We only judge a small subset.