Trailblazing astronaut Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the first woman of color in space, will present the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, Jan. 21 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A physician and engineer, Jemison has been inducted into both the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame, UW said in a press release, and is the founder and president of two medical technology companies and the leader of 100 Year Starship, a Pentagon-funded effort to ensure human interstellar space travel to another star within the next century.
“Dr. Jemison is a true icon and an inspiration to generations of Americans,” says Gabe Javier, associate vice chancellor for student affairs in the area of identity and inclusion, in a press release. “We are thrilled that she will be joining us to share her life story and to speak to how Dr. King’s legacy has impacted her and helped her overcome barriers.”
The 6:30 p.m. lecture at Varsity Hall in Union South is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required. The event coincides with the first day of classes for the spring semester and follows by one day the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Jemison logged 126 orbits of the Earth during a nearly eight-day trip aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in September 1992, according to a press release, and she was NASA’s first science mission specialist, performing experiments in material science, life science and human adaptation to weightlessness.
