community | 28 Diaspora Figures | Mae Jemison

Mae Jemison
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_Jemison

Mae Carol Jemison, M.D. (born October 17, 1956) was the first African-American woman to travel to space. She went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.

Early life

Dr. Jemison, the youngest of three children, was born on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama and raised in Chicago, Illinois.

She was educated in the Chicago public school system, on the southside of chicago at Morgan Park High School. At sixteen, she entered Stanford University on scholarship where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering, and fulfilled the requirements for an A.B. in African and Afro-American Studies. She attended Cornell Medical College where she earned her Doctorate in Medicine in 1981. In medical school, her interest and knowledge in Third World countries evolved into a commitment to effectively contribute. She traveled to Cuba, rural Kenya, and spent a medical clerkship in Thailand at a Cambodian refugee camp. She completed her internship at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in 1982.

Prior to joining the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1987, she worked as a general practitioner in Los Angeles with the INA/Ross Loos Medical Group. She then spent two and a half years (1983-85) as an Area Peace Corps Medical Officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa. Returning to Los Angeles, she resumed her medical practice, working with CIGNA Health Plans of California.

NASA career

Dr. Jemison was Science Mission Specialist (a NASA first) on the STS-47 Spacelab J flight, a US/Japan joint mission. She conducted experiments in life sciences and material sciences, and was co-investigator in the Bone Cell Research experiment in the Spacelab laboratory module. Jemison resigned from NASA in March 1993.

Chemical engineer, scientist, physician, teacher and astronaut, she has a wide range of experience in technology, engineering, and medical research. In addition to her extensive background in science, she is well-versed in African and African-American Studies and is trained in dance and choreography. Her inspiration for going into NASA was African-American actress, Nichelle Nichols who portrayed Lt. Cmdr. Uhura on Star Trek.

Later achievements

Dr. Jemison founded The Jemison Group, Inc., located in Houston, Texas, to research, develop and implement advanced technologies suited to the social, political, cultural and economic context of the individual, especially for the developing world. Current projects include: Alpha, (TM) a satellite based telecommunication system to improve health care in West Africa; and The Earth We Share, (TM) an international science camp for students ages 12 to 16, that utilizes an experiential curriculum.

This attitude and her high achievements in historically exclusionary fields led Dartmouth College to invite her to its Hanover campus in 1993 where she taught a course on Space Age Technology and Developing Countries. Dr. Jemison is currently a member of the Dartmouth faculty in the Environmental Studies Program and is Director of The Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries at Dartmouth College. The Institute was established as an agent for identifying, assessing, researching and implementing advanced technologies that may be employed advantageously to the development of less industrialized nations.

Dr. Jemison is the host and a technical consultant to World of Wonders series produced by GRB Entertainment and seen weekly on the Discovery Channel. She is also in demand as a speaker to civic and government organizations, schools and corporations around the country and internationally.

Awards and honors she has received include Essence Award (1988); Gamma Sigma Gamma Women of the Year (1989); Honorary Doctorate of Science, Lincoln College, PA (1991); Honorary Doctor of Letters, Winston-Salem, NC (1991); McCall's 10 Outstanding Women for the 90s (1991); Pumpkin Magazine's (a Japanese Monthly) One of the Women for the Coming New Century (1991); Johnson Publications Black Achievement Trailblazers Award (1992); Mae C. Jemison Science and Space Museum, Wright Jr. College, Chicago, (dedicated 1992); Ebony's 50 Most Influential women (1993); Turner Trumpet Award (1993); and Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth (1993); Kilby Science Award (1993); Induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame (1993); People magazine's 1993 "50 Most Beautiful People in the World"; CORE Outstanding Achievement Award; National Medical Association Hall of Fame. She was honored by the establishment (1992) of the Mae C. Jemison Academy, an alternative public school in Detroit.

Dr. Jemison is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Science; Association of Space Explorers: Honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; board of Directors of Scholastic, Inc.; Board of Directors of Houston's UNICEF; Board of Trustees Spelman College; Board of Directors Aspen Institute; board of Directors Keystone Center; and the National Research Council Space Station Review Committee. She has presented at the United Nations and internationally on the uses of space technology, was the subject of a PBS Documentary, The New Explorers: Endeavor by Kurtis Production, and made a cameo appearance in the episode "Second Chances" of Star Trek: The Next Generation as Lieutenant Palmer.

In 2006, she appeared the PBS documentary, African American Lives, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. The documentary, which uses DNA testing to trace the ancestry of several African Americans, revealed that Jemison's maternal grandfather is East Asian[1].

She resides in Houston, Texas with her cats Sneeze and Little Mama.