First African-American Female Astronaut to Speak at UNC Wilmington Jan. 22 for MLK Celebration

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the first African-American female in space and founder of two medical technology companies, will be the keynote speaker during the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Thursday, Jan. 22 at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The event will begin at 7 p.m. in Kenan Auditorium.

Admission is free, but tickets are required and are available at the Kenan Auditorium Box Office, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Monday-Friday, beginning Jan. 5. For more information about tickets, call 910.962.3500.

At age 16, Jemison attended Stanford University on scholarship, earning degrees in chemical engineering and African and Afro-American studies. She then received her doctorate in medicine from Cornell Medical College in 1981. Before joining the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1987, Jemison worked as a general practitioner and an area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Jemison made history in 1992 as the first African- American woman in space. She served as the science mission specialist on the space shuttle Endeavor during the STS-47 Spacelab J flight. After leaving NASA in 1993, she founded the Jemison Group, which focuses on the beneficial integration of science and technology into everyday life. She also founded BioSentient Corp., which markets mobile equipment that monitors the body's vital signs and trains people to respond favorably to stressful situations.

In addition to the medical technology companies, Jemison founded The Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, a non-profit organization that created The Earth We Share program. The program is an annual international science camp for children ages 12 to 16.

Jemison is a former professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College, where she directed the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries. She currently serves as a professor-at-large at Cornell University and is a published author.

Media opportunities include phone interviews for preview stories prior to the event.

Media contact:
Jamie Smith, UNCW media relations, 910.962-3171 or smithj@uncw.edu