The only Greek woman who worked for NASA, Ioanna Vernikos, talked about her life, her career and her dreams about humanity’s future. “I was born in Alexandria and had a wonderful childhood. My parents came from Sifnos. I enjoyed my life in Egypt, because Alexandria was a multicultural place and I had the chance to socialize with children from all over the world. My dream was to become an actress.
Sometimes they needed a child for a play and I almost took the role, but my father didn’t let me perform. I met my husband in Great Britain. In 1960 we both moved to Ohio, where I continued studying pharmacology. That’s where I started doing research on stress. My research was very special and had great results. NASA learnt about that, so they asked me to be responsible for the Directorate of Life Sciences. I was officially the best expert in stress issues.
After my husband’s death I was left alone with my two children and I finally retired in 2000.
I didn’t like the fact that I had nothing to do, so I started working hard. In 1998, I succeeded in persuading John Glenn going back to space. I use the knowledge I’ve acquired while working with astronauts to advise young people on what to do in order to be healthy and vivid during the following years”.
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