Tracy Caldwell was a high school student in Arcadia, California when Christa McAuliffe was chosen as the first teacher to go into space. McAuliffe served as an inspiration for Caldwell to pursue a career in space. The Space Shuttle Challenger accident in 1986 didn’t deter Caldwell from pursuing her dreams. After receiving her doctorate in physical chemistry, she was selected by NASA for training and in August 2007 she fulfilled her childhood dream by flying on the Space Shuttle Endeavor.

Benjamin Alvin Drew began his career in the United States Air Force Academy, where he trained to become a pilot. He served in several military missions, including: Just Cause, Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Operation Provide Comfort. Selected by NASA as a Mission Specialist, Drew flew in mission STS-118 on the Space Shuttle Endeavor in August 2007.

Barbara Morgan first came to national prominence in 1985 when she trained alongside Christa McAuliffe as part of NASA’s Teacher in Space Project. After the Challenger accident, Morgan resumed her career as an elementary school teacher in McCall, Idaho, but she continued her affiliation with NASA by speaking with groups and serving on various task forces. More than two decades later, Morgan fulfilled a lifelong dream by serving as a Mission Specialist on STS-118 in August 2007.

Pilot and astronaut Buzz Aldrin served as the Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 11 which landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. He was the second person to step on the Moon, following Neil Armstrong. Armstrong was selected by NASA as part of its third group of astronauts in 1963. He has logged a total of more than 289 hours in space. Prior to NASA, Aldrin served as a jet fighter pilot for the United States Air Force during the Korean War.

My name is Patricia Jimenez and I have now been teaching for 10 years. I started teaching at Bell Gardens High School in the city of Bell Gardens, in California. I attended the University of California at Irvine and majored in Biology.

Jennifer Lara is a high school student at Bell Gardens High School in the city of Bell Gardens, in California. She enjoys science and wants to improve our environment.

A pioneer in the development of private space exploration, Peter Diamandis is the force behind several space-related organizations, including the X PRIZE Foundation whose mission is "to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity."

Michael Winters is an engineering and technology teacher at Gabrielino High School. He created an Eco-Fuel Research Project to help teach his students about the possibilities of alternative fuels. His work with students has drawn accolades, including winning one of BP's A+ for Energy grants to teach about energy and energy conservation in the classroom. He believes that "understanding yesterday's technology impacts to use today's technology for creating tomorrow's technology."

A Contributing Editor at WIRED Magazine, Joshua Davis is a journalist, author and filmmaker. In addition to WIRED, his work has been published in magazines ranging from GQ, to Outside to Men's Health. As a filmmaker, his documentary, The Beast Within, won Best Documentary at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival. His first book, The Underdog, documented his many attempts at outlandish competitions.

A professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Southern California, Clifford Johnson is part of the international effort to understand and explain the origins of the universe. In 2005, Johnson was awarded the Maxwell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for his contribution to "string theory, quantum gravity and its interface with strongly coupled field theory."

In 2006, Anousheh Ansari soared into space as a spaceflight participant with the Russian space program. She became the first female private space explorer and the first astronaut of Iranian descent to go into space. To encourage advancements in space exploration, Anousheh and her family provided title sponsorship of the Ansari X PRIZE. Ansari started her own telecommunications company, Telecom Technologies, which she sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. Ansari is currently the co-founder and CEO of Prodea Systems.

Benita Albert is a math teacher at Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Over her forty years of teaching she has taught across the secondary school math curriculum. In 1983, she recognized that in her "science town" there was no serious high school student science research. Subsequently, she designed and started a program that has grown from a single student to a dozen students, including the first place team at the Siemens Foundation science competition.

Casey Jaeger is an energetic student researcher at Oak Ridge High School who, two years ago, played varsity football and thought of science as a barrier in the way of his athletic goals. He now devotes much of his time researching multiscale temperature data from weather balloons.

Kathleen Galau is a member of the Oneida Tribe Turtle Clan. She has an MS in biology from the University of Nevada. She has resided in Alaska for nine years now where she has taught college, high school and middle school. She currently teaches middle school at Floyd Dryden MS in Juneau Alaska during the school year and teaches a summer transitions camp for high school students in the summer. The camp incorporates Native American knowledge as an important part of the learning experience. She teaches biology, history and sometimes math.

I am a sophomore student at Juneau Douglas High School in Juneau, Alaska. I have been intrigued with science all of my life simply because I have always wanted to understand "why." I look forward to having a career in either archeology, anthropology, paleontology, microbiology, genetics or even being an astrophysicist. Essentially, I'm interested in a lot and I'm not quite sure what I want be yet. As long as I'm learning something new and interesting, I'll be more than happy.

Chris Carman is a science teacher at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Kent, Ohio. He has been teaching for ten years, and has a Master's Degree in Science Curriculum & Instruction from Kent State University. He has been happily married to his wife Tara for four years and has a bright and energetic three-year old daughter named Anna. He collecting old video games and announcing football and basketball games at RHS, and as a boy once burned up a brand new Radio Shack 160-in-1 electronics project kit in less than five minutes.

My name is Joel Hawksley, and I am a senior at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Kent, Ohio. I have a wide variety of interests, from drumming to photography. I run varsity cross country, serve as the captain of the tennis team, and lead our band's drum line as section leader. For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed taking pictures, and even more so, improving my abilities as a photographer. More recently, my interest in computer programming has grown, starting with self-taught HTML during my middle school years.

It is past 11:00 pm and I am sitting on the living room couch, the textbook in my lap illuminated by a solitary light. Equipped with a pencil and my well-used graphing calculator, I log yet another late night in an attempt to solve my physics homework.

Chasity Malatesta teaches Honors Anatomy and Physiology at West Salem High School in Oregon. She graduated from George Fox University and has been a teacher and cross country coach for ten years. She is a Wilderness EMT, Snowboarding Club advisor and helps out with the Zoology Club. She does many community outreaches specializing in cardiovascular education and sports physiology. She is an instructor for the Red Cross and the local community college.

Elaine Paulishak teaches 8th grade physical science at Mid Valley Secondary Center in Throop, Pennsylvania. She has participated in a variety of science field research including monitoring radiation levels in Colorado, studying thermal vents in the Pacific Ocean and surveying the coast of Alaska using Multibeam Sonar. A finalist for Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year, she recently received a prestigious Toyota Tapestry Award to study coal mine chemistry.

My name is Emily Rinaldi. I am 14 years old and a freshman at Mid Valley High School in Dickson City, PA. As an athlete and young scholar, I have come to appreciate challenges of all kinds. When I have a goal in mind, I put everything I can into turning it into a reality.

Greg Craven is a high school science teacher, a husband, and a father of two, not necessarily in that order. In his eight years of teaching high school, he's taught Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Math, and Freshman Science. Having traveled extensively earlier in life, he enjoys trying to bring in real-world examples and perspectives as he teaches in a medium-sized rural school in Oregon.

Alicia Brown is a senior at Central High School in Independence, Oregon. She has a wide variety of interests both inside and outside the classroom, and has never passed up the opportunity to challenge herself, including electing to spend her sophomore year at the New Mexico Military Institute to "get a more varied experience." She is an avid reader and writer, and admits to a Wikipedia obsession . . . which explains many a late English paper.

John Snyder is a computer science teacher at the Advanced Technologies Academy, a high-tech magnet senior high school in Las Vegas, Nevada. His teaching specialties include website development and game programming. He has taught in North Dakota and Kansas, as well as in Nevada, at the junior high, senior high, and university levels.

Ben is a senior science student at Advanced Technologies Academy Magnet School in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a gifted student in the sciences who has deep interests in chemistry, astronomy and herpetology (study of reptiles and amphibians). Diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, he finds himself becoming obsessively interested in a single field of study. Currently his interest is in computer science, yet in the past he has focused on herpetology.