Highlights
Dr. Mae Jemison
Closing Session Plenary Speaker
Sunday Afternoon, July 17, 2005
Mae C. Jemison blasted onto orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavor, September 12, 1992, the first woman of color to go into space. Now, founder and president of a small advanced technology company and college professor, the space flight was just one of a series of accomplishments for this woman, 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.
Dr. Jemison's current work focuses on the beneficial integration of science and technology into our everyday lives for all on this planet. To pursue these ideas, she formed the Jemison Group, Inc. 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.
Dr. Jemison started the Earth We Share?, an international science camp where students from around the world, ages 12 to 16 , work together to solve current global dilemma, like "How many People Can the Earth Hold" and "Predict the Hot Public Stocks of the Year 2030." The four-week residential program is free to all the participants and builds critical thinking and problem solving skills through an experiential curriculum. Dr. Jemison also serves as Bayer Corporation's national science literacy advocate.
As Director of the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries and Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College, Dr. Jemison works on sustainable development-improving human quality of life now such that the ability of future generations to grow and prosper is not compromised. The institute is organizing a series of roundtables to define a framework-economic, geographical, technological and political-for energy development initiatives between the US and African countries.
Dr. Jemison has earned numerous honors and awards including induction into the Nation 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; and a number of honorary doctorates.
Dr. Jamison has presented to the UN 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 on the Board of Directors of Scholastic, Inc., the Aspen Institute, Keystone Center, The National Urban League, and Spelman College. Dr. Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama and raised in Chicago. At sixteen, she entered Stanford University on a scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree I Chemical Engineering, and fulfilled the requirements for an AB in African and Afro-American studies. She earned her doctorate in medicine from Cornell University Medical College.
A noted lecturer, Dr. Jemison speaks nationally and internationally on science literacy, sustainable development, education, achieving excellence, the importance of increased participation of women and minorities in science and technology fields and investing in the present to secure the future.
