Yelyzaveta Kordyum (1932–2024) was a Ukrainian biologist who made a significant contribution to the development of cell biology, plant embryology, and space biology.

She headed a Ukrainian–American research project focused on plant development and reproduction in space. In 1997, she coordinated an experiment conducted aboard the Space Shuttle «Columbia» with the participation of Leonid Kadenyuk, the first astronaut of independent Ukraine. This research helped scientists understand whether plants are capable of growing and developing fully beyond Earth. Space biology thus became one of the most widely recognized areas of her work.

For many years, Yelyzaveta Kordyum worked at the Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, where she later became Head of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy. Her research focused on how plants adapt to environmental changes, including their responses to light, magnetic fields, and the absence of gravity.

In 2020, Yelyzaveta Kordyum was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame—an institution that honors individuals whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of space science and exploration. Yelyzaveta Kordyum belongs to a generation of Ukrainian scientists who worked at the intersection of Earth and space sciences, opening new horizons for understanding life—both on our planet and beyond it.