Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada,  has had an exceptionally distinguished career. Prior to being selected to join the astronaut program of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in June 1992, Ms. Payette, a multilingual person, conducted advanced research in computer systems, natural language processing and automatic speech recognition.  Ms. Payette served as CSA's Chief Astronaut from 2000 to 2007. She participated in two space missions (1999 and 2009) and was Canada's first astronaut to board the International Space Station.  Ms. Payette has also worked as a Capsule Communicator to the NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, she served as scientific authority for Quebec in Washington, and was Chief Operating Officer of the Montreal Science Centre.