Mae Jemison was born the youngest of three children in Decatur, Alabama on October 17, 1956. When Mary was three years old her family moved to Chicago. Mae's uncle introduced her to the world of science when she was very young. Mae especially enjoyed sciences that focused on how the human body works and why people act the way they do. She also enjoyed learning how people lived in the past and had a great interest in space. Mae was a good student and enrolled at Stanford University when she was 16. She graduated with degrees in chemical engineering and Afro-American studies and went to Cornell University so she could become a doctor of medicine.

After Mae finished her schooling to be a doctor she volunteered to work in a Cambodian refugee camp and was a medical officer with the Peace Corps in West Africa. When she returned to the United States she became a family doctor until NASA selected her to train to become an astronaut. After Mae completed her training she was selected to be an astronaut and flew into space in September of 1992.

Mae Jemison is no longer an astronaut. She is currently a professor at Dartmouth College and she helps with the TV show "World of Wonders" on the Discovery Channel. Mae Jemison is a great scientist and she will always be known as the first African-American woman to enter space.

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