Whitson presents well-travelled gift to Rice

Astronaut and Rice alumna Peggy Whitson ’86 presented Rice President David Leebron with a well-travelled gift on April 2. Whitson, who broke the U.S. record in September for most time in space — 665 days — carried a Rice Owls T-shirt to the International Space Station on her record-breaking 288-day flight. Whitson gave the shirt and a certificate detailing its 122 million-mile journey to Leebron prior to a lecture to students in Natural Sciences 520 “Public Science Communications.” Whitson, who also holds the U.S. record for most spacewalks by a by a woman, earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rice and serves as an adjunct associate professor of biosciences.