(COLUMBIA, SC) Columbia College will host Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space, for a presentation on Tuesday, March 15, 7 p.m., at Tronco's at the State Fairgrounds.

Part of the College's sesquicentennial celebration, this special presentation is free and open to the public.

In addition to serving as an astronaut, Jemison is a physician, engineer, and the founder of two technology companies. Born in Decatur, Alabama, and raised in Chicago, she entered Stanford University on scholarship at age 16, graduating with a B.S. degree in chemical engineering. She earned her doctorate in medicine at Cornell University Medical College.

Prior to joining NASA in 1987, she worked as a general practitioner in California and as a Peace Corps medical officer in West Africa. She was a NASA astronaut for six years and became the first woman of color to go into space on September 12, 1992, aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. 

In 1993, she founded The Jemison Group, Inc., dedicated to the research, development and implementation of advanced technologies to alleviate the massive burdens of developing nations in the areas of health care, food production, and the environment.

Her latest business venture, BioSentient Corporation, established in 1999, holds the exclusive license from NASA to commercialize the space-age technology known as Autogenic Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE), which allows individuals to minimize or eliminate unwanted physical responses to outside stimuli by controlling their autonomic nervous system. AFTE is being examined as a treatment for anxiety, nausea, migraine and tension headaches, chronic pain, hypertension and hypotention, and stress-related disorders.

Jemison is also founder of The Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, which sponsors, among other things, an annual science camp,"The Earth We Share," for students ages 12-16 from all over the world. 

A former professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College, where she directed the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries, she is currently the A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. 

Jemison was elected into the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine in 2001. She serves as Bayer Corporation's national science literacy advocate and as a member of the board of directors of Scholastic, Inc., Valspar Corporation, and the Texas Governor's State Council for Science and BioTechnology Development.

She has received numerous awards and honors, including induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame, the National Medical Association Hall of Fame, and the Texas Science Hall of Fame; selection as one of CNN's top newsmakers of the past 25 years, People magazine's "World's 50 Most Beautiful People," and Ebony magazine's "50 Most Influential Women"; the Johnson Publications' Black Achievement Trailblazers Award; the Turner Trumpet Award; and the Kilby Science Award.

She has presented to the United Nations on the uses of space technology; appeared weekly as the host and technical consultant of the "World of Wonder" series on the Discovery Channel; appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation; and served as the subject of a PBS documentary, "The New Explorers."

In a 1999 White House Project straw poll, she was selected by American voters as one of seven women with the potential to lead the country.

Her book, Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments From My Life, written for teenagers, was published in 2001.

Jemison's visit is sponsored by BellSouth.