Penn State Harrisburg to welcome speaker Dr. Mae Jemison Jan. 25

Mae Jemison

Astronaut, engineer, entrepreneur, physician, educator, and the first woman of color in the world to travel into space, Dr. Mae Jemison will visit Penn State Harrisburg Jan. 25.

Credit: Mae Jemison

MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — Penn State Harrisburg will welcome astronaut, engineer, entrepreneur, physician and educator Dr. Mae Jemison at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25, in the Student Enrichment Center Theatre on campus. The event is free and open to the public. To register, visit maejemisonjan25.eventbrite.com.

Jemison is at the forefront of integrating the physical and social sciences with art and culture to solve problems and foster innovation. Jemison leads 100 Year Starship, a global initiative seed funded through a competitive grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to ensure the capabilities for human travel to another star within the next 100 years while transforming life on Earth.

Jemison served six years as a NASA astronaut and was the first woman of color in the world to go into space aboard a joint space shuttle mission with the Japanese space agency. 

Trained as an engineer, social scientist and dancer, Jemison, a medical doctor, was the area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia. As a professor at Dartmouth College, Jemison focused on technologies designs for sustainability for both industrialized and developing nations. She founded two technology companies and the non-profit Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, which designs and implements STEM education experiences impacting thousands of students and hundreds of teachers worldwide. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, Fortune 500 companies’ boards, and the National Women’s Hall of Fame. In September 2017 Jemison spearheaded "Look Up," to connect people to space, Earth and each other.