Astronaut Col. Michael Fincke, recent spacewalker of STS-134 and former commander of Expedition 18 to the International Space Station, will speak today at 1 p.m. in Gorgas Library room 205.

Fincke will discuss the importance of international education or experience and working with astronauts from other countries.

Fincke is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University and has trained both with NASA and the Russian space system. He is fluent in Japanese and Russian and has logged 381 days in space, most recently on the final space shuttle mission in the summer of 2011.

Fincke was chosen as a speaker because he has international appeal, according to Mangala Krishnamurthy, reference librarian at the Rodgers Library for Science and Engineering.

Selected by NASA in April 1996, Fincke reported to the Johnson Space Center, where he completed two years of training and evaluation.

As the International Space Station commander, Fincke and his three-person crew helped prepare the station for future six-person crews. The Expedition 18 mission concluded with undocking from the station and safely landing back in Kazakhstan on April 8, 2009.

The Astronaut Appearances Office receives thousands of requests each year, and very few of these requests can be accommodated due to the number of shuttle flights and support of the International Space Station. The University of Alabama has been selected to host an astronaut appearance during International Education Week.

International Education Week is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Education. It was first held in 2000, and it has been held every year since then on the third week of November. The University has sponsored International Education Week annually since 2001.

Capstone International Programs, University Libraries, International Honors Program and Capstone Conversations sponsored Col. Fincke’s visit to the University.

According to Donna Adcock, Director of Public Relations of University Libraries, University Libraries has sponsored past guest speakers such as Aileen

Henderson, B. J. Hollars, and Dave Madden. Fincke is the last lecturer for the fall semester, but more speakers are planned for the spring.