Mae Jemison

Born October 17, 1956 (Decatur, Alabama)

American astronaut, physician

Mae Jemison went into space in 1992 aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. (A space shuttle is a craft that transports people and cargo between Earth and space.) Having been a physician before she became an astronaut, she performed scientific experiments during the eight-day voyage. The first science mission specialist sent into orbit by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), she was also the first woman of African descent to travel in space. After leaving NASA, Jemison founded her own advanced technology companies and has been active in the field of education. Her goal is to use her knowledge and experience to solve problems faced by people on Earth.

"I felt like I belonged right there in space. I realized I would feel comfortable anywhere in the universe—because I belonged to and was a part of it, as much as any star, planet, asteroid, comet, or nebula."

Inspired by science fiction

Mae Carol Jemison was born on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama. She was the youngest of three children of Charlie Jemison, a custodian and contractor, and Dorothy Jemison, a teacher. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when Mae was a small child. By the time she entered kindergarten in 1961 she knew how to read, and she had already

decided to be a scientist when she grew up. She enjoyed reading about science, becoming a science-fiction enthusiast. Jemison told a SuperScience magazine writer that, in sixth grade, two of her favorite books were A Wrinkle in Time and Arm of the Starfish by author Madeline L'Engle (1918–). "Those books stand out," Jemison said, "because they had women scientists and heroines."

In 1968, at age twelve, Jemison had a disturbing experience. Near her predominantly African American neighborhood civil rights demonstrations were being held prior to a major political event. Seeking to prevent disorder, the Chicago mayor sent in the National Guard. As Mae watched the guardsmen march through the streets carrying rifles, she felt both frightened and defiant. Recalling the event almost twenty-five years later, she told SuperScience, "I reminded myself that I was as much a part of the United States as the guardsmen."

During high school Jemison concentrated on science, studied dance and art, and participated in student government. After graduation she entered Stanford University in California, where she majored in chemical engineering and African studies and learned the Russian and Swahili (an African dialect) languages. After earning a bachelor's degree from Stanford in 1977, Jemison studied medicine for four years at Cornell University in New York. While at Cornell she traveled to Thailand and Kenya to provide primary medical care services. Upon completing her medical internship (supervision by a certified doctor) at Los Angeles/USC Medical Center in 1982, Jemison joined the Peace Corps in West Africa. (The Peace Corps is a volunteer organization for service in developing countries sponsored by the U.S. government.) She served as a staff physician until 1985, when she returned to Los Angeles to practice general medicine.

Flies in space

Jemison applied to the NASA astronaut training program in October 1985. Three months later, in January 1986, the space shuttle Challenger (see entry) exploded shortly after takeoff. Seven astronauts died in the disaster, and NASA postponed the application process. After reapplying later in the year, Jemison became one of only fifteen candidates selected from a field of nearly two thousand aspiring astronauts. Trained for the position of mission specialist (scientist astronaut), she awaited a shuttle assignment and worked as a liaison between the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and NASA crew members in Cape Canaveral, Florida. On her first assignment Jemison was a mission specialist with the ground crew in Houston for the space shuttle Discovery, or Spacelab-J. (Spacelab is a research laboratory that orbits in space.) Launched in June 1991 at Cape Canaveral, Spacelab-J was a joint venture with Japan. The purpose of the flight was to conduct experiments in space to help scientists better understand Earth's environment. Jemison learned the procedures involved in operating a shuttle, conducting experiments in orbit, launching payloads (equipment and supplies) or satellites (orbiting spacecraft), and performing space walks.

On September 12, 1992, over five years after joining NASA, Jemison served as a science mission specialist during an eight-day voyage aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. Although Patricia Cowings (1948–; see box on page 119) was the first African American woman to be trained as an astronaut, Jemison became the first female of African descent to go into space. Her job was to study the effects of weight-lessness and motion sickness on the seven-person crew. She also conducted an experiment with tadpoles. "We wanted to know how the tadpoles would develop in space with no gravity," she explained in an interview with Essence magazine. "When we got back to Earth," she continued, "the tadpoles were right on track, and they have [sic] turned into frogs." Jemison commented to the SuperScience reporter that while she was still aboard the Endeavour she looked down and saw her hometown of Chicago. At that moment she thought about her student days and then, she said, "I felt like I belonged right there in space. I realized I would feel comfortable anywhere in the universe—because I belonged to and was a part of it, as much as any star, planet, asteroid, comet, or nebula."

Starts her own companies

Soon after Jemison resigned from NASA in 1992 she started The Jemison Group to use advanced technology to improve the quality of life in developing countries. For instance, she envisioned using satellite mapping to survey a country's topography (details of the surface of the land) in order to locate resources and to build roads. As Jemison observed to a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, drawing a map on the ground is too time consuming. But "From space, you can take one picture and get incredible amounts of data, even though one picture may cost $5,000." Another possible use of technology, she added, is to make fuels from plants to replace fossil fuels such as coal. In 1999 Jemison founded BioSentient Corporation to explore the commercial applications of Autogenic Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE), a technology developed by Patricia Cowings for NASA in 1979. A research psychologist at Ames Research Center in California, Cowings originally designed AFTE, which monitors biofeed-back (biological processes of the body), to ease the effects of space adaptation syndrome in astronauts. (Space adaptation syndrome is similar to motion sickness.) After extensive testing, in 2003 BioSentient was preparing to offer AFTE as a drug-free treatment for stress-related disorders such as anxiety and nausea. The plan was to market the equipment to psychiatrists, neurologists, and other health care professionals.

Promotes science education

Since leaving NASA Jemison has made significant contributions in science education. In 1993 she joined the faculty at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she became director of The Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries. Jemison has cosponsored an annual International Science Camp for students age twelve to sixteen. The month-long summer camp is free to qualified applicants and focuses on critical thinking (a way of thinking about a topic or problem by using careful analysis and judgment) and experiential learning (learning by experience: by doing, as opposed to reading or listening). She also promoted science for children by serving as the National School Literacy Advocate for the Bayer Corporation's program "Making Science Make Sense." In 2001 Jemison published a memoir, Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life, for readers in grades seven through twelve.

Jemison has received extensive recognition for her achievements. In 1988 she was presented the Essence Award, two years later she was named the Gamma Sigma Gamma

Patricia Cowings, Pioneering Scientist

In 1977 Patricia S. Cowings (1948–) became the first female scientist, as well as the first African American woman, to be trained as an astronaut. A research psychologist at the Ames Research Center (ARC) in California, Cowings studied the physical effects of flying in space. She developed the Autogenic Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE) to ease the effects of space adaptation syndrome, which is similar to motion sickness.

Cowings described her early career in the following excerpts from an essay she wrote for the NASA website:

I was the first female scientist trained to be an astronaut. This was way before [first U.S. female astronaut in space] Sally Ride's day [seeSally Ride (1951–) entry] and they didn't even have a uniform for me. I was the alternate and never got a chance to fly but that experience is something I will never forget. The event was Spacelab Mission Development-3, a joint effort between Johnson Space Center (JSC) and ARC and was the first simulation of a life-sciences-dedicated space shuttle mission…. There were two years of fairly intense science development and crew training—half of the time at Ames and the other half at JSC. There was also training at university sites. It was a good two years in which "much ado" was made about my inclusion….

In 1979, my own flight experiment [AFTE] was selected by NASA and it flew on STS [space transport system] 51-B, STS 51-C (1984) and Spacelab-1 (1992).

Woman of the Year, and in 1992 she received the Ebony Black Achievement Award. She also received an honorary doctorate from Lincoln University in 1991. Then, in 1992, an alternative public school in Detroit was named The Mae C. Jemison Academy in her honor. During those years she conducted science experiments for NASA and kept up her interests in medicine and science with various board memberships, including a one-year appointment (1990–92) to the Board of Directors of the World Sickle Cell Foundation. (Sickle cell anemia is an inherited disease affecting African Americans in which unusually shaped red blood cells do not carry oxygen properly.) Jemison also held memberships in the American Medical Association, the American Chemical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has gone on to serve on the advisory committee of the American Express Geography Competition and as an honorary board member of the Center for the Prevention of Childhood Malnutrition. Jemison was the subject of a Public Broadcasting System television documentary, The New Explorers: Endeavour, and she appeared in an episode of the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation.

For More Information

Books

Alagna, Magdalena. Mae Jemison: The First African American Woman in Space. New York: Rosen Central, 2004.

Gelletly, LeeAnne. Mae Jemison. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2002.

Jemison, Mae. Find Where the Wind Blows: Moments from My Life. New York: Scholastic, 2001.

Naden, Corinne J., and Rose Blue. Mae Jemison: Out of This World. Brook-field, CT: Millbrook Press, 2003.

Periodicals

"Dr. Mae Jemison: First in Space." SuperScience (February 2001): p. 10.

Eze, Paschal. "Mae Jemison Honoured." New African (February 2002): p. 25.

Giovanni, Nikki. "Shooting for the Moon." Essence (April 1993): pp. 58+.

Leach, Susan Llewelyn. "How One Woman Is Bringing Space Technology Down to Earth." Christian Science Monitor (April 5, 2001): p. 14.

Marshall, M. "Child of 60s Set to Become First Black Woman in Space." Ebony (August 1989): pp. 50+.

Sykes, Tanisha A., and Sonya A. Donaldson. "A Space-Age Idea." Black Enterprise (July 2003): p. 43.

Web Sites

Cowings, Patricia S. "Women of NASA." NASA.http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/people/bios/women/pc.html (accessed on June 30, 2004).

"Dr. Mae Jemison." NASA Quest: Women of NASA.http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/women/TODTWD/jemison.bio.html (accessed on June 29, 2004).

"Mae C. Jemison." The Faces of Science: African Americans in Science.http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/faces.html (accessed on July 2, 2004).