Featured Woman in STEM: Mae Jemison
Dr. Mae Jemison is an engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. In 1992, she became the first African American woman to travel in space!
(image credit: nasa)
Nichelle Nichols on set as communications officer Nyota Uhura (image credit: treknews.net)
A Geek Girl from the Start
Mae Carol Jemison was born in 1956 and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She was always interested in science and astronomy. She credits the television show Star Trek—in particular, the role played by Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers in her role as Lieutenant Uhura—for encouraging her dreams of someday traveling to space. At this time in American history, life was still highly segregated: women and people of color had fewer professional options, opportunities, and role models—in the sciences and elsewhere. Dr. Jemison recalls her childhood impressions of the Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s:
“everybody was thrilled about space, but I remember being really really irritated that there were no women astronauts.”
Jemison was an extremely talented dancer, and trained in many types of dance, from ballet to modern dance to traditional Japanese styles. She even considered becoming a professional dancer for a time!
Education and Professional Journey
At the age of 16, Jemison left home and enrolled at Stanford University, where she experienced discrimination and prejudice as one of the only African American students in her classes. Nevertheless, she persisted—graduating in 1977 with a B.S. in chemical engineering and a B.A. in African and African-American Studies. She then went on to attend Cornell Medical School, earning her M.D. (medical doctor) degree in 1981. All this time, Jemison maintained her love of dance: choreographing, practicing, and taking classes at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a modern dance company in New York City. From 1983 to 1985, Jemison was a medical officer in the Peace Corps, serving in Liberia and Sierra Leone. When she returned to the United States, she maintained a private medical practice, while taking graduate-level engineering classes on the side. Somewhere along the way, she also became fluent in Russian, Swahili, and Japanese!
The First Black Female Astronaut
In 1987, Mae Jemison was one of 15 people accepted to NASA Astronaut Group 12, out of about 2,000 applicants. In this role, Jemison made history as the first Black woman astronaut in America. At NASA, she worked on launch support at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and on computer software at the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) in Texas.
From September 12-20, 1992, she logged over 190 hours in space as a Mission Specialist on STS-47, the 50th Space Shuttle mission and the second mission of the shuttle Endeavour. With her, she took a poster from the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, a West African statuette, and a photo of Bessie Coleman, the first American woman of color to earn a pilot license. In 1993, she resigned from NASA to pursue another “endeavor”: starting her own company.
Later Career
After retiring from NASA, Jemison went on to found The Jemison Group Inc.—a consulting firm which considers the human impact of technology and design—and the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence (named after her mother)—which “develops and implements teaching methods, curricula, materials and programs that…places special emphasis on building critical thinking skills, experiential teaching methods, science literacy, integrated approaches to learning and individual responsibility in achieving excellence.”
(image courtesy 100 Year Starship, 100yss.org)
From 1995 to 2002, Jemison served a professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College, where she ran the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries. She founded BioSentient Corp and has been working to develop a portable device that allows mobile monitoring of the involuntary nervous system, based on a technique she’d tested while working in the space program. Since 2012, she has run the 100 Year Starship project, which aims “to make the capability of human travel beyond our solar system a reality within the next 100 years.”
Dr. Jemison has written children’s books, appeared on an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, and has a personal dance studio in her home where she choreographs and dances in original productions. She continues to advocate for STEM literacy, learning access and equity, and innovation and progress in science and technology.
In Her Own Words
In this clip from NOVA’s Secret Life of Scientists & Engineerss, Jemison describes her personal journey from child stargazer to astronaut trailblazer:
