{"id":110693,"date":"2026-09-14T13:38:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T13:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=110693"},"modified":"2026-09-14T13:38:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T13:38:02","slug":"dr-mae-jemison-first-woman-of-color-to-go-into-space-to-deliver-sept-22-uri-honors-colloquium-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/dr-mae-jemison-first-woman-of-color-to-go-into-space-to-deliver-sept-22-uri-honors-colloquium-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Mae Jemison, first woman of color to go into space, to deliver Sept. 22 URI Honors Colloquium lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 14, 2026 \u2013 Dr. Mae Jemison has spent her entire aerospace career integrating the physical and social sciences with art and culture to spark innovation and build meaningful solutions to critical problems facing the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut whose work on improving science literacy, and achieving diversity and inclusion within STEM disciplines is recognized globally. In her <strong>Sept. 22<\/strong> talk, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/hc\/2026-event\/to-be-announced\/\">An Inclusive, Audacious Journey Transforms Life Here on Earth and Beyond<\/a>,\u201d as part of the University of Rhode Island Honors Colloquium, Jemison will consider ways to generate, activate and execute practical steps to achieving the extraordinary.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hosted by the Honors Program, URI\u2019s premier lecture series examines the science of outer space. After meeting with students and faculty, Jemison will bring her case to the public at 5:30 p.m. in Edwards Hall on the Kingston Campus as part of the fall colloquium series, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/hc\/2026-honors-colloquium\/\">Interstellar Exploration: Journey Beyond Your Limits<\/a>.\u201d Her appearance will also be livestreamed on <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/hc\/2026-honors-colloquium\/\">the colloquium\u2019s website<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.givecampus.com\/schools\/UniversityofRhodeIslandFoundation\/events\/2026-honors-colloquium-interstellar-exploration-journey-beyond-your-limits\">Registration is required<\/a> to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jemison, the world\u2019s first woman of color to go into space, was a NASA astronaut for six years and flew as the science mission specialist aboard the joint mission NASA-Japanese space agency space shuttle <em>Spacelab J<\/em>. Jemison is also a fellow and&nbsp;visiting scholar at EnMed, Texas A&amp;M University\u2019s engineering medicine program, researching pathways to transform scientific insight into operational therapy and optimizing biomedical instrumentation in clinical settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jemison also founded the Jemison Group Inc., a technology consulting firm that purposefully considers and integrates critical socio-cultural issues when designing engineering and science projects. She also founded The Earth We Share, a national program that designed and implemented STEM experiences impacting many teachers and students around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jemison has received several accolades for her work, including being named to the Forbes 50 Over 50 list in 2023, the 2023 Prix Galien Roy Vandelos Pro Bono Humanum Award for Global Health Equity, the African Union Ambassador\u2019s inaugural Mickey Leland Award for global leadership. She was also inducted into the National Women\u2019s Hall of Fame, Texas Science Hall of Fame, and the National Medical Association and International Space halls of fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jemison\u2019s lecture will be followed on Sept. 29 by Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society and president of Pioneer Astronautics. A full roster of colloquium speakers and sponsors can be found on <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/hc\/2026-honors-colloquium\/\">the Honors Colloquium website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year\u2019s URI Honors Colloquium is led by the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/physics\/\">Department of Physics<\/a>, bringing forth thought-provoking conversations that bridges cutting-edge science and the boundless imagination of science fiction. The series concludes in December with a lecture on achieving the impossible with outer space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Hosted by the University\u2019s Honors Program, the annual URI Honors Colloquium is free and open to the public. To see recordings of last year\u2019s speakers, or past colloquiums, visit the Honors Colloquium <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/hc\/hcarchives\/2024-honors-colloquium\/\"><em>Archives<\/em><\/a><em>. Sign up <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSfPjKp9dwjyBfbmuTpz28Jzt4VXjHoLdCVJO__crADAUYXtMA\/viewform\"><em>here<\/em><\/a><em> for more information and reminders for colloquium events or by emailing <\/em><em><u>urihonors@etal.uri.edu<\/u><\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Sept. 14, 2026 \u2013 Dr. Mae Jemison has spent her entire aerospace career integrating the physical and social sciences with art and culture to spark innovation and build meaningful solutions to critical problems facing the world. Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut whose work on improving science literacy, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":110694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12,1913,1905,1912],"class_list":["post-110693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-public-engagement","tag-research","tag-special-events"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110695,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110693\/revisions\/110695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}