Monday 4 March 2013

Women's History Month 2013 - Day 4


Today we have a celestial Goddess who reached for the stars and boldly went where no African American woman had gone before... (you’ll get that reference in a minute). Not only was this starry-eyed woman an astronaut, she’s a trained doctor, has worked for the Peace Corps, is an education advocate, can speak four languages fluently, is trained in dance and choreography and now works in technological research; in short, she’s a badass – SHE EVEN GUEST STARRED IN AN EPISODE OF STAR TREK!! Overcoming not only the institutionalised sexism of academia, but also racism, to reach the stellar heights of her profession, ladies and gentleman I give you...


Dr Mae Jemison (born 1956)


Mae Jemison was born in Alabama in 1956, then moved to Chicago with her family when she was three in order to get a better education, and it was here that an uncle introduced her to the world of science. Now many little kids dream of being an astronaut, buy Mae also had a passion for anthropology, archaeology, and astronomy that she pursued throughout her childhood. She enrolled at Stanford University at the age of 16, and in 1977 graduated with degrees in both chemical engineering and Afro-American studies. Jemison faced both racism and sexism at Stanford, particularly in the engineering department, a place that was the domain of privileged white men. She has described, looking back, occasions where professors would ignore her input while congratulating her male classmates for the exact same comments. This only made her more determined to succeed.

Mae went on to study medicine at Cornell University, getting her doctorate in 1981. During this time also travelled through Asia and Africa with the Peace Corps, working as a doctor and legislator, before settling in California to work as a GP. But soon she decided to set her sights higher (I promise I’ll finish with the puns soon).

In 1987, on her second try, she was selected by NASA to be one of the 15 out of 2,000 applicants for their training program, and in 1988 she became the first black female astronaut in NASA history. Dr. Mae Jemison finally went into space in 1992, as the science mission specialist on STS-47 Spacelab-J. STS-47 was a cooperative mission between the United States and Japan. The eight-day mission was accomplished in 127 orbits of the Earth, and included 44 Japanese and U.S. life science and materials processing experiments.

Once back on terra firma, Mae did not rest on her laurels. She has gone on to set up projects to develop technology to help the developing world, which has worked on projects including thermal energy generation for developing countries, and satellite communications for facilitating health care in West Africa; and a second project which runs international science camps for students in their teens, aimed at encouraging people to think globally about how technology can deal with global problems.

Not content with encouraging the next generation, she has also appeared ON The Next Generation (even I groaned). In 1993 she became the first real life astronaut to appear on the show. Her honours and awards are too countless to list, but needless to say she is still working hard, advocating science and technology (especially for young girls and ethnic minorities), working within her established foundations, teaching and doing many public appearances. She continues to be a role model and inspiration to others.

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