page_title: Mae Jemison
section_title: Honors and awards
hierarchical_section_title: Mae Jemison / Honors and awards
caption_attribution_description: English: Mae Jemison on Azeri postage stamp Azərbaycanca: Mai Cemison
context_page_description: Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Jemison joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected to serve for the STS-47 mission, during which she orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992.
  Born in Alabama and raised in Chicago, Jemison graduated from Stanford University with degrees in chemical engineering as well as African and African-American studies. She then earned her medical degree from Cornell University. Jemison was a doctor for the Peace Corps in Liberia and Sierra Leone from 1983 until 1985 and worked as a general practitioner. In pursuit of becoming an astronaut, she applied to NASA.
  Jemison left NASA in 1993 and founded a technology research company. She later formed a non-profit educational foundation and through the foundation is the principal of the 100 Year Starship project funded by DARPA. Jemison also wrote several books for children and appeared on television several times, including in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
context_section_description: 1988 Essence Science and Technology Award
  1990 Gamma Sigma Sigma Woman of the Year
  1991 McCall's 10 Outstanding Women for the 90s
  1992 Johnson Publications Black Achievement Trailblazers Award
  1992 Ebony Black Achievement Award
  1993 National Women's Hall of Fame
  1993 Ebony magazine 50 Most Influential women
  1993 Kilby Science Award
  1993 Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College
  1993 People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World"
  1993 Turner Trumpet Award
  2002 listed among the 100 Greatest African Americans according to Molefi Kete Asante
  2002 Texas Women's Hall of Fame inductee
  2003 Intrepid Award by the National Organization for Girls
  2004 International Space Hall of Fame
  2005 The National Audubon Society, Rachel Carson Award
  2017 Buzz Aldrin Space Pioneer Award
  2019 Florida Southern College Honorary Chancellor
caption: Jemison on 1996 Azeri postage stamp
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