Biographical Profile - Dr. Mae C. Jemison
Mae C. Jemison blasted into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, September 12, 1992, the first woman of color to go into space. Now, founder and president of two technology companies, the space flight was just one of a series of accomplishments for this dynamic woman.
Dr. Jemison served as a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut for six years. As the science mission specialist on the STS-47 Spacelab J flight, a U.S./Japan joint mission, she conducted experiments in life sciences, material sciences, and was a co-investigator of the Bone Cell Research experiment. Dr. Jemison resigned from NASA in March 1993.
Currently, Dr. Jemison's focus is on a new business, BioSentient Corporation, a medical technology company that develops and markets mobile equipment worn to monitor the body's vital signs and train people to respond favorably in stressful situations. BioSentient was created in July 1999 by The Jemison Group, Inc., which holds the exclusive license from NASA to commercialize this exciting new technology. Originally designed to control motion sickness, it presents significant opportunities across a wide spectrum of health and human performance areas.
The Jemison Group, Inc. was established to focus on the beneficial integration of science and technology into our everyday lives. Company projects have included consulting on the design and implementation of solar thermal electricity generation systems for developing countries and remote areas and the use of satellite-based telecommunications to facilitate health care delivery in West Africa.
In 1994, Dr. Jemison founded The Earth We Share™ (TEWS), an annual international science camp where students from around the world, ages 12 to 16, work together to solve current global dilemmas, like "How Many People Can the Earth Hold" and "Predict the Hot Public Stocks of The Year 2030." The four-week residential program builds critical thinking and problem solving skills through an experiential curriculum. TEWS is a program of the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Dr. Jemison also serves as Bayer Corporation's national science literacy advocate.
Dr. Jemison is an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, which brings in select individuals to supplement the activities of permanent faculty. Dr. Jemison was a professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College from 1995 - 2002, where she directed the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries. S.E.E.ing the Future (Science, Engineering and Education), an institute project and workshop, is a White Paper that discusses a framework for prioritizing governmental funding of science and engineering research. She was the moderator for an IEEE-USA Technical Symposia Space Technologies for Disaster Mitigation and Global Health.
Dr. Jemison's first book, Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments From My Life, autobiographical anecdotes about growing up, was published in Spring 2001.
Prior to joining NASA in 1987, Dr. Jemison worked in both engineering and medicine. She was a General Practitioner in Los Angeles with the INA/Ross Loos Medical Group. She then spent two and a half years (1983-1985) as Area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa. On her return to Los Angeles, she worked as a GP with CIGNA Health Plans of California, while updating her engineering skills.
Dr. Jemison was elected into the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine in 2001. She serves on the Board of Directors for Scholastic, Inc. and Valspar Corporation, and the Texas Governor's State Council for Science and BioTechnology Development. Dr. Jemison has received numerous awards and honors, including induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame; selection as one of the People magazines' 1993 "World's 50 Most Beautiful People;" Johnson Publications Black Achievement Trailblazers Award; the Kilby Science Award; National Medical Association Hall of Fame; selection as a Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College; Texas Science Hall of Fame; Rotary Club Chicago's ROTARY/One Award; and a number of honorary doctorates including Princeton University. Dr. Jemison has presented to the United Nations on the uses of space technology, appeared weekly as the host and technical consultant of the "World of Wonder" series on The Discovery Channel in 1994-1995, appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was the subject of the PBS documentary The New Explorers. She is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and has an alternative public school in Detroit named after her. In January 1999, she was selected as one of the top seven women leaders in a Presidential Ballot national straw poll conducted by The White House Project.
Born in Decatur, Alabama, and raised in Chicago, she entered Stanford University at sixteen on a scholarship. 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 earned her doctorate in medicine at Cornell University Medical College. She has traveled widely. A noted lecturer, Dr. Jemison speaks nationally and internationally on science literacy, sustainable development, education, achieving excellence, the importance of increased participation of women and minorities in science and technology fields, and investing in the present to secure the future.
Dr. Jemison loves cats and resides in Houston.