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Science & Technology
Dr. Mae Jemison:
Astronaut
A medical doctor, astronaut, philanthropist, activist and businesswoman, Dr. Mae Jemison is a 21st-century Renaissance woman. She is best known as the first black woman to go into space, doing so on the space shuttle Endeavour in September 12, 1992. Jemison is also a social scientist and an advocate for public education and the developing world. After practicing medicine for nearly three years in west Africa, she founded The Jemison Group to research, develop and implement advanced technologies and the Jemison Institute for Advanced Technology in Developing Countries at Dartmouth College.
FULL NAME
Mae Carol Jemison
BORN
October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science, chemical engineering, Stanford University, 1977; M.D., Cornell Medical College, 1981; internship at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, 1982
CAREER
After completing her medical residency and spending two and a half years with the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia, Jemison began practicing medicine with CIGNA Health Plans of California in 1985. She joined NASA in 1987, conducting biological and material science experiments on a fall 1992 mission. After leaving NASA in 1993, Jemison joined Dartmouth College's faculty, teaching courses on space age technology and developing countries. She later founded The Jemison Group, served as a consultant to the Discovery Channel's "World of Wonders" program and appeared in an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." A popular speaker at civic, education and business forums, Jemison published her autobiography, "Find Where the Wind Goes," in 2001.
AWARDS
Selected as one of the nation's top seven women leaders in a poll conducted by the White House Project (1999); People Magazine's "World's 50 Most Beautiful People" (1993); Ebony's 50 Most Influential women (1993); Turner Trumpet Award (1993); Kilby Science Award (1993); Induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame (1993); Johnson Publications Black Achievement Trailblazers Award (1992); McCall's 10 Outstanding Women for the '90s (1991) and numerous honorary doctoral degrees.
PERSONAL
The youngest of three children, Jemison was born in Alabama and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her three cats.
