Mae Jemison

From 1990-1992 she served on the board for the ‘World Sickle Cell Foundation’. They work to find a cure and to help those suffering from the disease.

This pioneering astronaut is the eponym for the Mae C. Jemison Academy in Detroit.

Mae Jemison was born on October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama. She’s the youngest child of Charlie, a maintenance supervisor, and Dorothy, a teacher. She has two siblings; sister Alda and brother Charles.

The family moved to Chicago, when Mae was three, for the superior educational systems. She considers Chicago her hometown.

Always studious, she spent hours in the library studying various areas of science. She also loved to experiment. Once, after receiving an infection from a splinter, she performed an in-depth study on pus.

Jemison graduated at 16 from ‘Morgan Park High’ in 1973. That same year, she enrolled at ‘Stanford University’ on a National Achievement Scholarship.

She kept a full schedule at Stanford; not only did she pursue a double major, she was also involved in dance and theater and headed the ‘Black Student Union’.

Jemison interned at the ‘LA County USC Medical Center’. After this, she spent time working as a general practitioner.

She spent 1983-1985 serving as a medical officer for the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia. She oversaw the care of volunteers and embassy personnel and helped the CDC on research projects. She also wrote manuals on self-care and initiated guidelines for health and safety.

Returning to the U.S. she decided to follow her dream of becoming an astronaut. She applied to NASA’s training program but the explosion of the ‘Challenger’ delayed the process. On June 4, 1987 she became the first African American woman accepted into the program. She was one of 15 chosen from a field of 2000.

She completed her training in 1988 and began working as an astronaut office representative with ‘Kennedy Space Center’. Her duties included processing the shuttles for launch and working with the computer software in the ‘Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory’.

On September 12, 1992, she went to space aboard the ‘Endeavour.’ Deemed ‘Mission STS47’ this was the 50th mission for the space shuttle program. Jemison performed experiments regarding weightlessness and motion sickness. She also conducted an experiment to determine how tadpoles develop in zero gravity. She spent 190 hours in space before returning to Earth on September 20th.

In 2001, Mae published her autobiography, ‘Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life.’ Aimed at young readers, it traces her humble beginnings through her arrival in space.