Emma Hwang facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Emma Hwang
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| Born |
Yu-liang Hwang
July 21, 1970 |
| Education | Boston University (BA) University of Michigan (MS, MS, PhD) |
| Occupation | Scientist |
| Employer | Wyle Laboratories |
| Known for | Aquanaut |
Emma Y. Hwang, born Yu-liang Hwang on July 21, 1970, is a scientist from Taiwan and America. She works as a researcher at Wyle Laboratories. Emma is famous for being an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 5 (NEEMO 5) team in June 2003.
Emma Hwang's Early Life and School
Yu-liang Hwang was born in southern Taiwan. When she was two years old, her family moved to the West Coast of the United States. There, she started going by the name Emma. She grew up and went to school mostly in central and southeast Texas. She finished high school at Ball High School in Galveston. Living near the Texas Gulf Coast made her interested in space.
Emma went to Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned her bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering. During her third year of college, she worked for a year and a half at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company in Houston, Texas. While in Boston, Emma became interested in scuba diving. This was because she admired the work of Jacques Cousteau. However, she didn't start training then because it was cold and she didn't have the money.
Emma later moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan. She went to graduate school at the University of Michigan. There, she earned two master's degrees. One was in biomedical engineering, and the other was in electrical engineering systems. While in graduate school, she also spent time teaching martial arts. She taught Aikido and Iaido. After several more years, she earned her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan. For her Ph.D., she studied and created new medical methods using ultrasound.
Emma Hwang's Career as a Scientist
After finishing school, Emma thought about moving to the Western United States. But she decided to return to the Texas Gulf Coast. This way, she could be closer to her sisters, brother, and new nephew. Coming back to Texas also gave her the chance to work in the space industry again. She joined Wyle Laboratories.
Emma started working at Wyle in September 2001. At first, she was a scientist in a group that studied sensors. She researched ways to measure oxygen, carbon dioxide, and pH. This helped monitor the health of cell cultures. These cells would be grown on the Space Shuttle or space station.
In 2002, she became a scientist with the Neurosciences Group. This group studies how space travel affects balance problems in astronauts. Astronauts sometimes have trouble balancing when they return to Earth. Emma's work helped develop ways to help astronauts adapt faster. This included adapting to the microgravity of space and the normal gravity on Earth. By 2011, Emma was working as a project manager. She managed projects related to exercise and ways to help astronauts stay healthy.
NEEMO 5 Mission: Living Underwater
In June 2003, Emma Hwang became an aquanaut. She took part in the NEEMO 5 mission. NEEMO stands for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations. This was a joint project between NASA and NOAA. The mission took place in Aquarius. Aquarius is the only undersea research laboratory in the world.
NEEMO 5 was the longest NEEMO mission at that time. The crew lived underwater for fourteen days. During the mission, Emma took part in a special test. It was a telemedicine simulation. Telemedicine means getting medical help from far away. In this test, two crew members used an ultrasound machine. A doctor in Houston guided them remotely. They used the machine to diagnose a fake kidney stone in one of the crew members. This showed how doctors could help astronauts or aquanauts from a distance.
