Rose-Hulman announces commencement speaker

Apr. 22—Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology announced its commencement speaker for its spring ceremony.

The first woman of color in the world to go into space, Mae Jemison, will present this year's commencement address and receive an honorary degree of engineering from Rose-Hulman during the May 25 ceremony in the Sports and Recreation Center.

Jemison is a former NASA Space Shuttle astronaut who also has made significant contributions as an entrepreneur, engineer, physician, educator and humanitarian, according to a release from the college.

Jemison's current mission is leading 100 Year Starship, a nonprofit global initiative to assure that capabilities for human travel beyond our solar system to another star exist within the next 100 years while transforming life on Earth.

Jemison's pioneering mission as a NASA astronaut came in a joint Space Shuttle mission with the Japanese space agency. She is the chair of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts External Council and founded the international The Earth We Share science camp, which designs and implements science, technology, engineering and mathematics education experiences impacting thousands of students and hundreds of teachers worldwide.

A member of the National Academy of Medicine, Jemison has received numerous awards, including induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame, the National Medical Association Hall of Fame, Texas Science Hall of Fame and International Space Hall of Fame.

She earned bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering and African and Afro-American Studies from Stanford University and received her medical doctorate from Cornell University's Weill College of Medicine.

For more information about Rose-Hulman's 146th commencement, visit www.rose-hulman.edu/commencement.