Mae Jemison is an incredible woman and scientist, and is the first African American woman to travel in space.
Mae Jemison was born in 1956 and moved to Chicago early in her childhood. As a child, she would spend many hours in the library reading about science. When she was in high school, she decided to pursue a career in biomedical engineering. After graduating from high school, she attended Stanford University on a National Achievement Scholarship. Mae graduated from Stanford in 1977 with 2 bachelors degrees – one in chemical engineering and one in African and African-American Studies. She then went to the Cornell University Medical College, receiving her doctor of medicine degree in 1981. While she was at Cornell, she traveled to Cuba, Kenya, and to a refugee camp in Thailand to provide people with medical care. Dr. Jemison became a Peace Corps Medical Officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia, where she also did medical research and taught. After returning to the U.S., she took a job as a general practitioner. She also enrolled in graduate courses in engineering and applied to NASA’s astronaut program. Her first application was turned down, but she did not give up and was one of 15 people accepted from an applicant pool of over 2,000.
After completing astronaut training, Jemison became a science mission specialist. In 1992, on the 8-day mission STS-47 Spacelab-J, Jemison conducted experiments on motion sickness and weightlessness, as well as an experiment to see how tadpoles would develop in space (they developed fine!).
After leaving NASA, Jemison accepted a teaching fellowship at Dartmouth College and founded The Jemison Group, which is a company that designs and consults on technology. At Dartmouth, she started the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries. She also started “The Earth We Share” which is an international science camp where students do experiments and learn critical thinking.
In an interview, when asked what tips she could give to young girls about achieving their dreams, Jemison answered:
“First of all, understand that sometimes other people won’t have the same vision of you that you have of yourself. Don’t accept other people’s limitations as being reality. Also, understand that you have as much right as anyone else to be in this world, and to be in any profession you want. That’s the most important thing — you don’t have to wait for permission.”
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Tags: astronaut, biography, NASA, science, space, women, women scientists
I heard her speak at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in 2009 and she was so motivating and inspirational.
Great work Vivienne, keep it up! Thank you for putting time and effort to share with the world the accomplishment of great women in science. I think what you are doing is helping to shed light on some long standing ignorance of those who believe that women don’t belong in science.