Tracy Caldwell Dyson, the younger of two girls, was born in Arcadia, California on August 14, 1969, and later moved to, in the early 1980s to attend junior high school where her father worked as an electrician. Beaumont, California where her father worked as an electrician, in the early 1980s to attend junior high school. As an undergraduate researcher at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), Caldwell Dyson designed, constructed, and implemented electronics and hardware associated with a laser-ionization, time-of-flight mass spectrometer for studying atmospherically relevant gas-phase chemistry. At CSUF, she worked for the Research and Instructional Safety Office as a lab assistant performing environmental monitoring of laboratories using hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials, as well as calibrating survey instruments and helping to process chemical and radioactive waste. During that time (and for many years prior) she also worked as an electrician/inside wireman for her father's electrical contracting company doing commercial and light industrial type construction. At the University of California, Davis, Caldwell Dyson taught general chemistry laboratory and began her graduate research. Her dissertation work focused on investigating molecular-level surface reactivity and kinetics of metal surfaces using electron spectroscopy, laser desorption, and Fourier transform mass spectrometry techniques. She also designed and built peripheral components for a variable temperature, ultra-high vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy system. She was selected to be an astronaut by NASA in 1998 and reported for training in August, 1999. The California native has a Ph.D. in Chemistry and is a veteran of two space flights. Dr. Caldwell Dyson has designed, constructed and implemented electronics and hardware associated with the study of atmospheric gas phase chemistry, and has developed and presented numerous papers on methods of chemical ionization for the spectral interpretation of trace compounds. In 2007, Caldwell Dyson flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor on STS-118, where she served as a Mission Specialist. In 2010, she served as Flight Engineer for Expedition 23/24. She has logged more than 188 days in space, including over 22 hours in three spacewalks. Ms. Caldwell Dyson is now a private pilot, married to Naval Aviator George Dyson. She is conversational in American Sign Language (ASL) and Russian. . She is also the lead vocalist for the all-astronaut band Max Q. In 2011, She served as the guest judge on a space-themed episode of the Food Network show Cupcake Wars. She also advised Jessica Chastain when the actress was preparing to appear as an astronaut and mission commander in the 2015 movie The Martian. Chastain said she was very inspired by Caldwell Dyson. Some of her recreational interests include running, weight training, hiking, softball, basketball, and auto repair/maintenance. As an undergraduate, she competed in intercollegiate athletics on the CSUF Titans track team as both a sprinter and long jumper.

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