» Founder and President of
Two Medical Technology Companies
Mae C. Jemison blasted into orbit aboard the shuttle Endeavour
on September 12, 1992 as the first woman of color to go into
space. Now the Founder and President of two technology companies,
the space flight was just one in a series of accomplishments
for this dynamic woman.
Born in Decatur, Alabama and raised in Chicago, she entered
Stanford University at the age of sixteen on a scholarship,
graduating with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and fulfilled
the requirements for an A.B. in African and Afro-American
studies. She earned her doctorate in medicine at Cornell University
Medical College.
Prior to joining NASA in 1987, Dr. Jemison worked in both
engineering and medicine. She was a General Practitioner in
Los Angeles with the INA/Ross Loos Medical Group. She then
spent two and a half years (1983-1985) as Area Peace Corps
medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa.
On her return to Los Angeles, she worked as a General Practitioner
with CIGNA Health Plans of California.
Dr. Jemison served as a National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) astronaut for six years. As the science mission specialist
on the STS-47 Spacelab J flight, a US/Japan joint mission,
she conducted experiments in life sciences, material sciences
and was a co-investigator of the Bone Cell Research experiment.
Dr. Jemison resigned from NASA in March 1993 and founded
The Jemison Group, Inc. The company was established to focus
on the beneficial integration of science and technology into
our everyday lives. Company projects have included consulting
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.
Most recently, Dr. Jemison developed a new business, BioSentient
Corporation, a medical technology company that creates and
markets mobile equipment worn to monitor the body's vital
signs and train people to respond favorably in stressful situations.
BioSentient was created in July 1999 by The Jemison Group,
Inc., which holds the exclusive license from NASA to commercialize
this exciting new technology. Originally designed to control
motion sickness, BioSentient’s technology presents significant
opportunities across a wide spectrum of health and human performance
areas.
In 1994, Dr. Jemison founded and currently chairs The Dorothy
Jemison Foundation for Excellence, a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization. The Earth We Share (TEWS), a program of the
foundation is an annual international science camp. Students
from around the world, ages 12 to 16, work together to solve
current global dilemmas, like "How Many People Can the
Earth Hold?" and "Predict the Hot Public Stocks
of The Year 2030." The four-week residential program
builds critical thinking and problem solving skills through
an experiential curriculum developed by Dr. Jemison.
Dr. Jemison also serves as Bayer Corporation's national science
literacy advocate.
As an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University,
Dr. Jemison manages to stay connected to her Alma Mater though
this program which brings select individuals to the campus
to supplement the activities of permanent faculty. Dr. Jemison
is a former professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth
College. Between 1995 – 2002, she directed the Jemison Institute
for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries. S.E.E.ing
the Future: Science, Engineering and Education, an institute
project and workshop, is a White Paper compiled and edited
by Dr. Jemison that discusses a framework for prioritizing
governmental funding of science and engineering research that
was released in Spring 2002. She was the moderator for an
IEEE-USA Technical Symposia Space Technologies for Disaster
Mitigation and Global Health.
Dr. Jemison was elected into the National Academy of Sciences’
Institute of Medicine in 2001. She serves on the Board of
Directors for Scholastic, Inc. and Valspar Corporation and
the Texas Governor’s State Council for Science and BioTechnology
Development. Dr. Jemison has received numerous awards and
honors including: 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; Texas Science Hall of Fame; Rotary
Club Chicago's ROTARY/One Award; a number of honorary doctorates
including Doctor of Humanities from Princeton University.
Dr. Jemison has presented to the U.N. on the uses of space
technology, appeared weekly as the host and technical consultant
of the World of Wonder series on the Discovery channel in
1994-1995, appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
and was the subject of the PBS documentary The New Explorers.
She is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and
is the namesake of an alternative public school in Detroit.
In January 1999, she was selected as one of the top seven
women leaders in a Presidential Ballot national straw poll
conducted by The White House Project.
Dr. Jemison's first book, Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments
From My Life, autobiographical anecdotes about growing
up, was written for teenagers and was published in Spring
2001.
About
Mae Jemison