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America’s First African-American Woman in Space to Speak at App State March 30

Dr. Mae Jemison will present the talkExploring the Frontiers of Science and Human Potential” March 30 at Appalachian State University. Her talk will begin at 7 p.m. in the Schaeffer Center for the Performing Arts. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Jemison

Jemison is the first African-American woman to go into space. She served six years as a NASA astronaut. She flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-47 Spacelab (Japan) mission in September 1992 and was NASA’s first science mission specialist, performing experiments in material science, life science and human adaptation to weightlessness. Prior to joining NASA, Jemison, a medical doctor, was the area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia.

She is currently leading 100 Year Starship (100YSS), an initiative seed funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) to assure the capability for human interstellar space travel to another star is possible within the next 100 years.

Jemison was the Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and was a professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College from 1995 to 2002.

She founded the technology consulting firm The Jemison Group Inc. that integrates the critical impact of socio-cultural issues when designing and implementing technologies, such as their projects on using satellite technology for health care delivery in West Africa and solar dish Stirling engines for electricity generation in developing countries.

Sponsors of Jemison’s campus visit are the University Forum Committee, Joan Askew Vail Endowment and the Office of Multicultural Student Development.