Recognizing Mae C. Jemison, MD

In observance of Black History Month we’ll be highlighting African American scientists, inventors, mathematicians and engineers.

If you think that you have not heard of Mae Jemison, you’re wrong. Mae Jemison was born in Alabama in 1956 but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. In 1977 she earned her bachelor degree in chemical engineering from Stanford. She followed with her doctorate in medicine from Cornell 1981. She worked for the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia from 1983-1985 as a medical officer. This alone is amazing. She developed a curriculum and taught volunteer personal health training. She also developed and participated in National Institute for Health and Center for Disease Control projects on rabies, Hepatitis B vaccine and schistosomiasis.

In June 1987 she was selected for NASA’s astronaut program- she would become the first African American woman in space. She had responsibilities as varied as her academic background. On board the Endeavor she was responsible for the shuttle’s software as well as co-authoring an experiment on bone-cell growth with the first Japanese astronaut.

To learn more about Mae Jemison, click here: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/jemison-mc.html