Happy 66th birthday to Doctor and Engineer Mae Jemison! She was the first black woman in space.
She flew aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992, working on experiments including bone cell research.
Dr. Mae Carol Jemison is a physician and retired astronaut. After her medical education and a brief general practice, Dr. Jemison served in the Peace Corps from 1985-1987, when she was selected by NASA to join the astronaut corps. She resigned from NASA in 1993 to form a company researching the application of technology to daily life.
She has appeared on television several times, including as an actress in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Dr. Jemison is a dancer, and holds 9 honorary doctorates in science, engineering, letters, and the humanities.
HONORS & AWARDS:
๐1988 Essence Science and Technology Award
๐1991 McCall's 10 Outstanding Women for the 90s
๐1991 Pumpkin Magazine's (a Japanese Monthly) One of the Women for the Coming New Century
๐1992 Johnson Publications Black Achievement Trailblazers Award
๐1993 National Women's Hall of Fame
๐1993 Ebony magazine 50 Most Influential women
๐1993 Kilby Science Award
๐1993 Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth
๐1993 People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful and sexy People in the World"
๐1993 Turner Trumpet Award
๐1997 Chicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Science Medicine and Technology.
๐2002 listed among the 100 Greatest African Americans according to Molefi Kete Asante.
๐2003 Intrepid Award by the National Organization for girls
๐2004 International Space Hall of Fame NASA Space Flight Medal
๐2005 The National Audubon Society, Rachel Carson Award
Institutions:
๐1992 Mae C. Jemison Science and Space Museum, Wilbur Wright College
๐1992 Mae C. Jemison Academy, an alternative public school in Detroit, Michigan
๐2001 Mae Jemison School, an elementary public school in Hazel Crest, Illinois
๐2007 Bluford Drew Jemison STEM Academy, a public charter school in Baltimore, Maryland
Doctors honoris causa:
๐1991 Doctor of Science, Lincoln College, Pennsylvania
๐2000 Doctor of Humanities, Princeton University
๐2005 Doctor of Science, Wilson College
๐2006 Doctor of Science, Dartmouth College
๐2007 Doctor of Engineering, Harvey Mudd College
๐2007 Doctor of Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
๐2008 Doctor of Humanities, DePaul University
๐2009 Doctor of Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of NYU.