Mae C. Jemison

(1956- )
Physician/Surgeon/astronaut

Mae Jemison was born October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama but her family moved to Chicago when she was three. She attended Stanford University on a National Achievement Scholarship and received a B.S. in chemical engineering and a B.A. in Afro-American studies in 1977. She then enrolled in Cornell University's medical school and graduated in 1981. Her medical internship was at the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center in 1982. She was a general practitioner with the INA/Ross Loos Medical Group in Lost Angeles until 1983, followed by two years as a Peace Corps medical officer in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Returning to the United States in 1985, she began working for CIGNA Health Plans, a health maintenance organization in Los Angeles. 

In 1987, Jemison was accepted in NASA's astronaut program. Her first assignment was representing the astronaut office at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. On September 12, 1992, when the space shuttle Endeavor lifted off, Jemison was aboard and became the first African American woman in space. She served aboard the Endeavor as a science specialist. Jemison resigned from NASA in 1993 to pursue personal goals related to science education and health care in West Africa. In 1994 Jemison founded the International Science Camp in Chicago to help young people become enthusiastic about science. 

In 1988, Jemison won the Science and Technology Award given by Essence magazine and in 1990 she was Gamma Sigma Gamma's Woman of the Year. In 1991 she earned a Ph.D. from Lincoln University.