Mae Jamison was born on Octoberber 17, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois. She was introduced to science by her uncle and developed interests throughout her childhood in anthropology, archaeology, evolution, and astronomy. While she was in high school, she became interested in biomedical engineering .After she graduated from high school in 1973,she entered into Stanford University. There she received degrees in chemical engineering and African American studies in 1977. Later in 1977 she entered the medical school at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York where she pursued an interest in international medicine. She volunteered for a summer in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand. Mae Jamison studied Kenya. In 1979 she graduated from medical school. In 1981 Mae Jamison became a medical officer with the Peace Corps in West Africa. After Mae Jamison returned to the United States, she applied to the National Space Administration because she wanted to be an astronaut. In October 1986, she was 1 of 15 accepted out of 2,000 applicants. Jamison completed her training as a mission specialist with NASA in 1988. Then she became an astronaut office representative with the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. She worked to process space shuttles for launching and to verify shuttle software. Mae Jamison's flight came in September 1992, and Mae had a mission on the shuttle Endeavor. At that time she was the only African American women astronaut. After she completed her NASA mission, she formed the Jemison Group, to develop and market advanced technologies. |
