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Doctor Mae C. Jemison Receives Thayer Award

Oct 13, 2021

Mae C. Jemison, the 2021 Thayer Award recipient, accepts the Thayer Award in Washington Hall at the United States Military Academy during the Thayer Award Banquet on October 7, 2021. Photo: USMA

WEST POINT – The West Point Association of Graduates honored Doctor Mae C. Jemison with the 2021 Sylvanus Thayer Award. The award was presented last Thursday, during ceremonies hosted by Lieutenant General Darryl A. Williams, Class of 1983, 60th Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

An audacious and pioneering polymath, Dr. Mae Jemison is at the forefront of integrating the physical and social sciences with art and culture to solve problems and foster innovation.

Jemison leads 100 Year Starship, an independent, non-profit global initiative seed funded through a competitive grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to ensure the capabilities for human travel to another star within the next 100 years and to enhance life on Earth.

Jemison served six years as a NASA astronaut and is trained as an engineer, social scientist, and dancer. Jemison, a medical doctor, was the Area Peace Corps Medical Officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Mae C. Jemison, the 2021 Thayer Award recipient, offers remarks after accepting the Thayer Award in Washington Hall during the Thayer Award Banquet on October 7, 2021. Photo: USMA

An educator, futurist, and leading voice for science literacy, social responsibility, and sustainability, Jemison is a member of the National Academies of Medicine, the External Council for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program and sits on Fortune 500 company boards, as well as the National Women’s Hall of Fame board. She is a mini Lego® figure and was the first real astronaut to appear on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

As a professor at Dartmouth College, Jemison focused on technology designs for sustainability for both industrialized and developing nations. She founded two technology companies and the non-profit Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, which designs and implements STEM education experiences impacting thousands of students and hundreds of teachers worldwide.

In September 2017 Jemison spearheaded Look Up™ to connect people to space, Earth and each other.

West Point Association of Graduates Board Chairman Lieutenant General (USA, Retired) Joseph E. DeFrancisco, Class of 1965, said, “The West Point Association of Graduates is honored to present the Thayer Award to Doctor Jemison. Her visionary service as an astronaut, engineer, entrepreneur, physician, and educator is reflective of West Point’s motto—Duty, Honor, Country—and makes her eminently worthy of our highest award.”