Down to Earth

Originally Published MX March/April 2003

COVER STORY

Interview by Steve Halasey

It would be an understatement to say that Mae C. Jemison, MD, has a unique perspective on issues relating to the development and application of advanced technologies. In fact, as a chemical engineer, physician, teacher, astronaut, and now a medical device entrepreneur, Jemison combines the visions of a number of rare perspectives.

After completing her medical residency and spending two and a half years with the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia, Jemison practiced medicine for CIGNA Healthplans (Los Angeles). She joined NASA in 1987, and became the first African-American woman to fly in space. During her September 1992 flight aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, she conducted biological and materials sciences experiments, and served as coinvestigator for the flight's bone-cell research experiment.