On Ada Lovelace Day: A Tribute to Mae Jemison, Astronaut

Ada Lovelace was the daughter of Lord Byron, and she wrote a program for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine; she is considered the first computer programmer. 

In honor of Ada Lovelace day on March 24th over 1500 bloggers and others have pledged to write about a woman in technology that they admire.  We feel that it is important for all of us to have female role models to admire in the technical fields. I have chosen to write about Mae Jemison, NASA astronaut. 

Mae Jemison was the first African American woman to go into space.  She grew up in Chicago, Illinois where her father was a roofer and her mother a teacher.  She studied Chemical Engineering in college with a double major as well in African American Studies.  She then attended Medical school, and was a practicing physician in California before she went back to school to study engineering with the goal to joining the space program. 

One can only imagine her drive to succeed – she gave up a successful medical career to join the space program.  She applied to the NASA Astronaut program twice, after the selection process was delayed by the Challenger disaster.

Do you have that level of ambition and drive in your life to keep trying and never rest on your laurels?  I don't!  I admire that very much. 

Here are some other facts and accomplishments:

• As an undergraduate she worked at a Cambodian refugee camp in
• Thailand
• After she worked as a doctor she joined the Peace Corps and was the Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia.
• She became the first African American woman ever admitted into the astronaut training program.
•  September 12, 1992, Jemison flew into space with six other astronauts aboard the Endeavour on mission STS47 becoming the first African American woman in space.
• She founded the Jemison Group, a company that seeks to research, develop, and market advanced technologies.