Dr. Mae Jemison to Discuss Race and Science at Connecticut College
Physician, engineer, dancer and the first woman of color in space, Dr. Mae Jemison, will give a talk and participate in a public discussion on science, race and power at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 10, in Palmer Auditorium, with a book signing to follow from 6:30-7 p.m. She will be joined by Dr. John Asher Johnson, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University. The event is free and open to the public.
Dr. Jemison leads 100 Year Starship (100YSS), a bold, far reaching nonprofit initiative to assure that capabilities exist for human travel beyond our solar system to another star within the next 100 years. She is building a multi-faceted global community to foster the cultural, scientific, social and technical commitment, support and financial framework to accomplish the 100YSS vision: An Inclusive, Audacious Journey that Transforms Life Here on Earth and Beyond. l00YSS programs include: annual public conference NEXUS- Pathway to the Stars: Footprints on Earth; the Canopus Awards for Excellence in Interstellar Writing; the l00YSS Crucibles-invitation only, transdisciplinary workshops to generate new disciplines to disrupt technological and systemic hurdles; and lO0YSS True Books to engage elementary students.
The l00YSS Way Research Institute seeks to generate the radical leaps that accelerate knowledge, technology, design, and thinking not just for space travel, but to enhance life on Earth. Dr. Jemison led the team that won the competitive, single awardee seed funding grant in February 2012 from DARPA, a premiere research agency. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and is on the boards of directors of Kimberly-Clark, the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards and the Texas Medical Center.
The first woman of color in the world to go into space, Dr. Jemison served six years as a NASA astronaut. Aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-47 SpacelabJ mission in September 1992, she performed experiments in material science, life sciences and human adaptation to weightlessness. Prior to joining NASA, she was a general practice physician in Los Angeles and then the AREA Peace Corps Medical Officer in Sierra Leone and Liberia. She is an icon in the women’s rights and civil rights movements.
Johnson received his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley. Johnson was named one of Astronomy Magazine’s “Ten Rising Stars” in astrophysics in 2013. His primary research focus is on the detection and characterization of planets outside our solar system, commonly known as exoplanets.
This talk and discussion serve as the keynote event for SYZYGY, the 2018-19 theme for collaborative programming between the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicities (CCSRE) and STEM Departments. It is co-sponsored by the CCSRE; the Offices of the President, the Dean of the College, and the Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion; CISLA-Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts; the SYKES Foundation; the Academic Resource Center; the Goodwin Niering Center; Quantitative Life Sciences; the Environmental Studies Program; Departments of Biology, Botany, Dance, Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies, Physics, Astronomy, and Geophysics.
October 1, 2018
