Mae Jemison

Class of 2023-24

President
The Jemison Group, Inc.

Astronaut, engineer, entrepreneur, physician and educator Mae Jemison is at the forefront of integrating the physical and social sciences with art and culture to solve problems and foster innovation. She leads 100 Year Starship, a global initiative to assure that the capabilities exist for human travel beyond our solar system to another star within the next 100 years.

The first woman of color to go into space, Jemison served six years as a NASA astronaut. Aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-47 Spacelab J mission in September 1992, she performed experiments in material science, life sciences and human adaptation to weightlessness.

Jemison earned her medical degree at Cornell University.

She founded The Jemison Group Inc., a technology consulting firm integrating critical socio-cultural issues into the design of engineering and science projects.

Jemison is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. 

She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the National Medical Association Hall of Fame, Texas Science Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame. She has received the Galien Foundation’s 2023 Roy Vagelos Pro Bono Humanum Award for Global Health Equity, the Common Wealth Award for Distinguished Service, the National Organization for Women’s Intrepid Award and the Kilby Science Award.

Jemison will collaborate with faculty, researchers and students in the School of Engineering Medicine.