Dr. Mae C. Jemison: Doctor, Scientist & Astronaut

Mae C. Jemison blasted into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, September 12, 1992, the world's first woman of color to go into space and the city of Chicago's first astronaut in U.S. history.

Jemison attended Stanford University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering. She completed her medical doctorate at Cornell University. Jemison was a General Practitioner in Los Angeles and then spent 2 ½ years as Area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa.

Since retiring from the space program Jamison formed a design company which consults 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. As Director of the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries and Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College, Jemison works on sustainable development.

Honors and awards include 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; and numerous honorary doctorates.

(From the Dorothy Jamison Foundation Website, http://www.jemisonfoundation.org/drmae.htm)