Honorary degree from Tufts University

Ellen Ochoa, veteran astronaut, inventor, and former director of the Johnson Space Center at NASA. A California native, she turned her research engineering background into a career exploring the cosmos. After receiving a doctorate in electrical engineering at Stanford University, she developed and patented optical systems for image processing and led a NASA research team in high-performance computing. Selected for the NASA astronaut program in 1990, in 1993 Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman in the world to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery. She traveled on three additional space flights, logging nearly 1,000 hours in space. Ochoa held several roles in the Astronaut Office and at Johnson Space Center before becoming the center’s first Hispanic and second female director in 2013. She will receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree.