Dr. Mae C. Jemison
Dr. Mae Jemison, c. 1990.
Courtesy of Dr. Mae Jemison.
Mae Carol Jemison was born in 1956 in Alabama, the youngest child of Charlie Jemison, a maintenance supervisor for a charity organization, and Dorothy (Green) Jemison, an elementary school teacher of English and math. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when Jemison was 3 to take advantage of better educational opportunities there. Jemison says that as a young girl growing up in Chicago she always assumed she would go into space.
A gifted and versatile student, Jemison graduated from high school and entered Stanford University at age 16. She received a degree in chemical engineering four years later and applied to medical school at Cornell University Medical College.
After completing her internship in Los Angeles, Jemison served as Peace Corps medical officer from 1983 to 1985 in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Upon returning to the United States, she opened a private practice in Los Angeles and began taking graduate engineering courses.
In 1987, on her second attempt, Dr. Jemison was one of fifteen candidates accepted by NASA from more than 2,000 applicants. Dr. Jemison flew her only space shuttle mission for eight days in 1992. She was the first woman of color to fly in outer space. After leaving NASA in 1993 she founded the Houston-based Jemison Group, Inc., which researches and develops technologies related to the social, political, cultural and economic context of the individuals, especially for the developing world. Among her many honors, Dr. Jemison was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.
The author of two books, Dr. Jemison is fluent in Russian, Japanese, and Swahili.
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