Phil Chapman was born in Melbourne, Australia and grew up in Sydney. He learned to fly during National Service with the RAAF, while he was an undergraduate in physics at Sydney University. After graduating, he spent 15 months during the International Geophysical Year studying the aurora australis in Antarctica, including wintering at a remote two-man camp. He then moved to Boston, MA, where he earned a master’s degree in aeronautics & astronautics at MIT and a doctorate in physics before being selected by NASA as one of the second intake of scientist astronauts (and the first foreign-born astronaut). After astronaut training, including jet pilot training with the USAF, he served as Mission Scientist for Apollo 14 and as a member of the Space Station Study Group, working on modifications to the second Skylab workshop so that it could become a permanent space station. He left the program to work in the space industry when Skylab was canceled, because he thought the decision to build the shuttle was a major mistake. Since then, his principal research interests have included the Solar Power Satellite (SPS) (with Peter Glaser at Arthur D. Little), geophysical aspects of climate change, laser propulsion, lunar transportation systems and economical launch vehicles. In the early ‘Eighties, Dr Chapman was President of the L5 Society (now the National Space Society); the most notable achievement on his watch was the successful campaign to prevent US ratification of the Moon Treaty. He is also a founding member of the Citizens’ Advisory Council on National Space Policy, which has prepared position papers for several US Presidents and was partly responsible for President Reagan’s decision to develop ballistic missile defenses (which led to the collapse of the USSR).In 1989, Dr Chapman organized and led a private expedition by sea from Cape Town to Enderby Land, Antarctica, investigating mineral resources before the moratorium on prospecting took effect. Email: philchapman@sbcglobal.net See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Chapman for more detail