Who is Dr. Leonilla Alexandrovna Malik from Lucifer's Hammer and what is their importance?

The Soviet who is trained as a kosmonaut and remains hopeful that she'll eventually be chosen for a mission because she believes the Americans will have females in space and the Soviets will follow suit. Meanwhile, she's stationed in the northern Soviet Union where she's working as a doctor. She is chosen to go into sapce to study the comet. Leonilla supports the idea that there's no need to return to Russia following the comet strike. She becomes a physician in the stronghold upon landing on Earth.