66 Facts About Mae Jemison

Mae Carol Jemison was born on October 17,1956 and is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut.

Mae Jemison became the first African-American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

Mae Jemison then earned her medical degree from Cornell University.

Mae Jemison was a doctor for the Peace Corps in Liberia and Sierra Leone from 1983 until 1985 and worked as a general practitioner.

Mae Jemison left NASA in 1993 and founded a technology research company.

Mae Jemison later formed a non-profit educational foundation and through the foundation is the principal of the 100 Year Starship project funded by DARPA.

Mae Jemison wrote several books for children and appeared on television several times, including in a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Mae Jemison holds several honorary doctorates and has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame.

Mae Carol Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama, on October 17,1956, the youngest of three children of Charlie Jemison and Dorothy Jemison.

Mae Jemison's father was a maintenance supervisor for a charity organization, and her mother worked most of her career as an elementary school teacher of English and math at the Ludwig van Beethoven Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois.

Mae Jemison knew from a young age that she wanted to study science and someday go into space.

Mae Jemison enjoyed studying nature and human physiology, using her observations to learn more about science.

When Mae Jemison told a kindergarten teacher she wanted to be a scientist when she grew up, the teacher assumed she meant she wanted to be a nurse.

Mae Jemison began studying ballet at the age of 8 or 9 and entered high school at 12 years old, where she joined the cheerleading team and the Modern Dance Club.

Mae Jemison had a great love for dance from a young age.

Mae Jemison learned several styles of dance, including African and Japanese, as well as ballet, jazz, and modern dance.

Mae Jemison did not get the leading role but was selected as a background dancer.

At Stanford, Mae Jemison served as head of the Black Students Union.

Mae Jemison choreographed a musical and dance production called Out of the Shadows.

Mae Jemison attended Cornell Medical School and during her training, traveled to Cuba, to conduct a study funded by American Medical Student Association and to Thailand, where she worked at a Cambodian refugee camp.

Mae Jemison worked for Flying Doctors stationed in East Africa.

Mae Jemison joined the staff of the Peace Corps in 1983 and served as a medical officer until 1985.

Mae Jemison was responsible for the health of Peace Corps volunteers serving in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Mae Jemison supervised the Peace Corps' pharmacy, laboratory, medical staff as well as providing medical care, writing self-care manuals, and developing and implementing guidelines for health and safety issues.

Mae Jemison worked with the Centers for Disease Control helping with research for various vaccines.

Mae Jemison was chosen out of roughly 2,000 applicants for 15 slots in NASA Astronaut Group 12, the first selected after Challenger.

Mae Jemison flew her only space mission from September 12 to 20,1992, as one of the seven-member crew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, on mission STS-47, a cooperative mission between the United States and Japan, as well as the 50th shuttle mission.

Mae Jemison logged 190 hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds in space and orbited the earth 127 times.

The crew was split into two shifts with Mae Jemison assigned to the Blue Shift.

Mae Jemison took a poster from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater along with her on the flight.

Mae Jemison took a West African statuette and a photo of pioneering aviator Bessie Coleman, the first African American with an international pilot license.

Aboard the Spacelab Japan module, Mae Jemison tested NASA's Fluid Therapy System, a set of procedures and equipment to produce water for injection, developed by Sterimatics Corporation.

Mae Jemison then used IV bags and a mixing method, developed by Baxter Healthcare, to use the water from the previous step to produce saline solution in space.

Mae Jemison was a co-investigator of two bone cell research experiments.

Mae Jemison resigned from NASA in March 1993 to start a company.

Mae Jemison served on the board of directors of the World Sickle Cell Foundation from 1990 to 1992.

Mae Jemison founded the Dorothy Mae Jemison Foundation for Excellence and named the foundation in honor of her mother.

Mae Jemison stated that the goal of these four-week long, residential programs is to increase scientific literacy by developing the students' abilities in both critical thinking and problem solving.

Mae Jemison was a professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College from 1995 to 2002 where she directed the Mae Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries.

Mae Jemison continues to advocate strongly in favor of science education and getting minority students interested in science.

Mae Jemison is a member of various scientific organizations, such as the American Medical Association, the American Chemical Society, the Association of Space Explorers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1999, Mae Jemison founded BioSentient Corp and obtained the license to commercialize AFTE, the technique she and Mohri tested on themselves during STS-47.

In 2012, Mae Jemison made the winning bid for the DARPA 100 Year Starship project through the Dorothy Mae Jemison Foundation for Excellence.

Mae Jemison is the current principal of the 100 Year Starship.

Mae Jemison's first book, Find Where the Wind Goes, is a memoir of her life written for children.

Mae Jemison describes her childhood, her time at Stanford, in the Peace Corps and as an astronaut.

LeVar Burton learned that Mae Jemison was an avid Star Trek fan and asked her if she would be interested in being on the show.

In 1993, Mae Jemison appeared as Lieutenant Palmer in "Second Chances", an episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, becoming the first real-life astronaut to appear on Star Trek.

From 1999 to 2005, Mae Jemison was appointed an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

Mae Jemison is an active public speaker who appears before private and public groups promoting science and technology.

In 2006, Mae Jemison participated in African American Lives, a PBS television miniseries hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Mae Jemison learned that some of her paternal ancestors were slaves at a plantation in Talladega County, Alabama.

Mae Jemison participated in the Red Dress Heart Truth fashion show, wearing Lyn Devon, during the 2007 New York Fashion Week to help raise money to fight heart disease.

On February 17,2008, Mae Jemison was the featured speaker for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first sorority established by African-American college women.

Mae Jemison paid tribute to Alpha Kappa Alpha by carrying the sorority's banner with her on her shuttle flight.

Mae Jemison's space suit is a part of the sorority's national traveling Centennial Exhibit.

Mae Jemison participated with First Lady Michelle Obama in a forum for promising girls in the Washington, DC public schools in March 2009.

In 2014, Mae Jemison appeared at Wayne State University for their annual Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

Mae Jemison took part in the Michigan State University's lecture series, "Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey", in February 2017.

In May 2017, Mae Jemison gave the commencement speech at Rice University.

Mae Jemison discussed the 100 Year Plan, science and education and other topics at Western Michigan University in May 2017.

Mae Jemison built a dance studio in her home and has choreographed and produced several shows of modern jazz and African dance.

Mae Jemison was pulled over by Nassau Bay police officer Henry Hughes for allegedly making an illegal U-turn and arrested after Hughes learned of an outstanding warrant on Jemison for a speeding ticket.

Mae Jemison's attorney said she believed she had already paid the speeding ticket years ago.

Mae Jemison spent several hours in jail and was treated at an area hospital after release for deep bruises and a head injury.

Mae Jemison filed a lawsuit against the city of Nassau Bay and the officer.