Jessica Meir, a 35-year-old scientist from Maine, is among eight people who were selected from a pool of more than 6,000 applicants to be trained as astronauts. Meir, who grew up in Caribou, is the youngest of five in a family of overachievers. Jessica is Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, following postdoctoral research in comparative physiology at the University of British Columbia.  In 2000, Meir graduated with a Master of Space Studies from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.