Mae Jemison

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Mae Carol Jemison
Mae Jemison
Astronaut
 Nationality American
 Born October 17, 1956
Decatur, Alabama
 Occupation1 Medical Doctor
 Space time 190 h 30 min 23 s
 Selection 1987 NASA Group
 Mission(s) STS-47
 1 previous or current

Mae Carol Jemison, M.D. (born 17 October 1956) is an American astronaut. She became the first African American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992 for a total of 7 days, 22 hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds.

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[edit] Early life and education

Mae Carol Jemison was born on October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama, the youngest child of Charlie Jemison, a roofer and carpenter, and Dorothy (Green) Jemison, an elementary school teacher. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when Jemison was 3 to take advantage of better educational opportunities there. She graduated from Morgan Park High School in 1973 and entered Stanford University on a National Achievement Scholarship.

Jemison graduated from Stanford in 1977, receiving a B.S. in chemical engineering (and fulfilled the requirements for a B.A. in African and Afro-American Studies). When she obtained her M.D. in 1981, she interned at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and later worked as a general practitioner.

[edit] Career

[edit] Peace Corps

From January 1983 through June 1985, Jemison was the area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia, where she also taught and conducted medical research.

[edit] NASA

In October 1985, Jemison applied for admission to NASA's astronaut training program. The Challenger disaster delayed the selection process, but when she reapplied in the fall of 1986, Jemison was one of the fifteen candidates chosen.

Jemison was a Science Mission Specialist on the STS-47 Spacelab J flight, a US/Japan joint mission, in September 1992. She conducted experiments in life sciences and material sciences, and was co-investigator on the bone Cell Research experiment in the Spacelab laboratory module. Jemison resigned from NASA on 8 March 1993.

[edit] Post-NASA

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, a satellite-based telecommunication system to improve health care in West Africa, and The Earth We Share, an international science camp for students ages 12 to 16, that utilizes MR.

Jemison was a professor in the Environmental Studies Program in 1993, where she taught a course on Space Age Technology and Developing Countries. From 1995-2002, she directed the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries. 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.

In 1999, Jemison was appointed to a six-year A.D. White professorship at Cornell University. She has presented at the United Nations and internationally on the uses of space technology and currently resides in Houston, Texas. In 2006 she appeared in 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] Jemison is a member of the American 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.

[edit] Works

[edit] Published works

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Awards

  • Essence Science and Technology Award (1988);
  • Gamma Sigma Gamma Women of the Year (1989);
  • Honorary Doctorate of Science, Lincoln College, PA (1991);
  • Honorary Doctor of Letters, Winston Salem College, 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);
  • Ebony's 50 Most Influential women (1993);
  • Turner Trumpet Award (1993);
  • Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth (1993);
  • Kilby Science Award (1993);
  • National Women's Hall of Fame inductee (1993);
  • People magazine's 1993 "50 Most Beautiful People in the World";
  • CORE Outstanding Achievement Award;
  • National Medical Association Hall of Fame;
  • Honorary Doctorate of Humanities, Princeton University (2000) [1];
  • Intrepid Award by the National Organization for Women [2]
  • International Space Hall of Fame inductee (2004)
  • Honorary Doctorate of Science, Wilson College (2005) [2];
  • Honorary Doctorate of Science, Dartmouth College (2006) [3]

Institutions named in her honor:

  • Mae C. Jemison Science and Space Museum, Wilbur Wright College, Chicago, (dedicated 1992);
  • Mae C. Jemison Academy, an alternative public school in Detroit (established 1992).


[edit] Trivia

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Commencements; Remember Ethics, Graduates Are Told". The New York Times, May 31, 2000.
  2. ^ Jessee, Willa. "Kids join moms in graduation line". Carlisle, PA: The Sentinel. May 23, 2005.
  3. ^ "Worthy of note: Honors, awards, appointments, etc.". Dartmouth Medicine. Summer 2006.

[edit] External links

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