The New York Academy of Sciences Annual Gala

Dr. Mae C. Jemison

Dr. Mae C. Jemison is an American engineer, physician and NASA astronaut who became the first woman of color in the world to go into space when she flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Serving six years as a NASA astronaut, Dr. Jemison is an icon of both the women's rights and civil rights movement, inducted into both the National Women's Hall of Fame (1993) and the International Space Hall of Fame (2004).

A strong, committed global voice for science literacy, in 1994 Jemison founded the international science camp The Earth We Share™ (TEWS) for students 12–16 years old from around the world. In 2011, Jemison also launched the TEWS-Space Race,  with the goal of improving science achievement for underserved Los Angeles-area students who are underrepresented in the sciences. Dr. Jemison continues to be a vocal advocate for improving education access and advocating for greater inclusion of girls in STEM programs. Jemison's book, Find Where the Wind Goes, is geared for teenagers and explores her experiences growing up on the South Side of Chicago, cultivating her aspirations to be a scientist, and her history-making journey into space.

Following her time in NASA, Dr. Jemison founded both The Jemison Group and BioSentient Corporation. A technology consulting firm, The Jemison Group explores and develops stand-alone science and technology programs, integrating the critical impact of socio-cultural issues with revolutionary technologies. Among The Jemison Group's groundbreaking work is a project to use satellite technology for health care delivery in West Africa and another to use solar dish Stirling engines for electricity generation in developing countries.

Currently, Dr. Jemison leads The 100 Year Starship (100YSS), a revolutionary initiative to assure the capability for human interstellar space travel to another star within the next century.

Involved in a wide range of programs and causes, Dr. Jemison is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine and is on the Board of Directors of: Kimberly-Clark Corp., Scholastic, Inc., Texas Medical Center, and Valspar Corp. She's also a Trustee of Morehouse College and served as the Chair of the Texas State Product Development and Small Business Incubator Board and the Greater Houston Partnership Disaster Planning and Recovery Task Force. Among many honors, awards and honorary degrees she has received the National Organization for Women’s Intrepid Award and the Kilby Science Award. Jemison appeared on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, hosted the Discovery Channel series World of Wonder, and was chosen by People magazine as one of the “World’s 50 Most Beautiful People.”

In addition to all her work, Dr. Jemison is a highly sought after speaker on issues of health care, social responsibility, technology and motivation. Sh has appeared on BBC, The McNeil Lehrer Report, ABC Nightline, NPR and CNN.

Prior to NASA, Jemison was a Peace Corps Medical Officer in Sierra Leone and Liberia for two and a half years, overseeing the healthcare system. Jemison earned a B.S. degree in chemical engineering and her M.D. from Cornell University.

John Acampado
Project Manager, Clinical Data, Simons Foundation

Reuben Advani
CEO, Global STEM Alliance, The New York Academy of Sciences

C. David Allis
Joy and Jack Fishman Professor of Biochemistry and Epigenetics, The Rockefeller University

Alex Bakal
Chief Financial Officer, Data Cubed, Inc.

Richard Baum
Chief of Staff to the President, New York University

Hannah Bayer
Chief Scientist, Data Cubed, Inc.

Martin Bednar
Vice President, CNS, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Jessica Bee
Communications Coordinator, Simons Foundation

Linda A. Bell
Provost and Dean of Faculty; Claire Tow Professor of Economics, Barnard College

Marta Benedetti
Associate Director for Research, Simons Foundation

Lincoln Benet
Chief Executive Officer and President, Access Industries, Inc.

Susan Betts
Senior Director, Brand Strategy, Microsoft

Steven Betza
Corporate Director of Electronics Engineering, Lockheed Martin

Nicholas Bigelow
Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Physics and Optics, University of Rochester

Stacie Grossman Bloom
Assistant Vice President for Policy & Administration; Associate Professor, Neuroscience & Physiology, NYU Langone Medical Center

Jeffrey Borenstein
CEO, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation

Karen Burke
Associate Clinical Professor of Dermatology, Mount Sinai Health System; Honorary Life Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Russel Caflisch
Director, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University

Hui Cao
Professor of Applied Physics and Physics, Yale University

Lindsey Cartner
Coordinator, Simons Foundation

Robert B. Catell
Chairman, Advanced Energy Research & Technology Center, Stony Brook University

Alice Luo Clayton
Senior Scientist, Simons Foundation Alzheimer’s Research Initiative (SFARI)

Addavail Coslett
Program Director, Chapman Perelman Foundation

Margaret Crotty
Executive Director, Partnership with Children

Barbara Dalton
Vice President, Venture Capital, Worldwide Business Development, Pfizer Inc

Lesley Davenport
Professor of Chemistry, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

Ellen de Brabander
Senior Vice President, Nutrition Research & Development, PepsiCo

Arjun Desai
Chief Operating Officer, JLABS, Johnson & Johnson Innovation

Robbert Dijkgraaf
Director, Institute for Advanced Study

Mikael Dolsten
President, Worldwide Research and Development, Pfizer Inc; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Paul Donnelly
Director of Business Development and Strategic Alliances, Data Cubed, Inc.

Phil Dormitzer
Vice President & Chief Scientific Officer, Viral Vaccines, Pfizer Inc

Carol Einiger
Senior Advisor, Roundtable Investment Partners LLC

MaryEllen Elia
New York State Commissioner of Education; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Julia Ellwanger
Head of R&D Communications, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Nina Farran
Founder, Fashionkind

Stuart Firestein
Chair, Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University

Christine Fitzgibbons
Executive Director, SUNY Impact Foundation

Olivia Flatto
President, The Pershing Square Foundation

Martin Fleming
Chief Analytics Officer and Chief Economist, IBM

Jay Flynn
Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Research Publishing, WILEY

Zandy Forbes
President and CEO, MeiraGTx

Natasha Franck
Founder and CEO, EONID

Grace Fuller
Editor, W Magazine, Condé Nast

Tammi Fumberi
Executive Assistant, Simons Foundation

Tamar Szabó Gendler
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Yale University

Ranajeet Ghose

Vice Chair and Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, City College of New York

Alex Ginsburg
Managing Director, Research, Two Sigma Investments

Paul Glimcher
CEO, Data Cubed, Inc.; Director, The HUMAN Project, New York University

Dixie Goss
Gertrude B. Elion Endowed Scholar and Professor, Hunter College

Glenda Greenwald
President and Founder, Aspen Brain Institute Foundation

Yuval Grossman

Professor of Physics, Cornell University

Luke Grosvenor
Research Coordinator, Simons Foundation

Kathryn Guarini
Vice President, Research Strategy, IBM

Edward Guinan
CEO, Knowledge Capital Corporation

Brigitta Gundersen
Scientist, Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI)

Kris Gunsalus
Associate Professor of Biology; NYU-AD Faculty Director of Bioinformatics, New York University

Cheryl Healton
Dean, College of Global Public Health, New York University

Alan Healy
Postdoctoral Associate in Chemistry, Yale University; Finalist, 2017 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists

David Hemmer
Chair, Department of Mathematics, University at Buffalo

Annie Heremans
Vice President, Research & Development, Unilever

Steven Hochberg
Partner, Deerfield Management

Paul Horn
Senior Vice Provost for Research, New York University; Chair, The New York Academy of Sciences

Rebecca Horne
Multimedia Director, Simons Foundation

Chia Wei Hsu
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Yale University; Finalist, 2017 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists

June Huh
Visiting Professor, Institute for Advanced Study; Winner, 2017 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists

Jerry MacArthur Hultin
Chair, Global Futures Group LLC; President Emeritus, Polytechnic Institute of NYU; former Under Secretary of the Navy

Morgan Huse
Member, Immunology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Andrew Ilott
Research Investigator, Bristol-Myers Squibb; Winner, 2017 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists

Jay Iyengar
Senior Vice President, Chief Innovation & Technology Officer, Xylem

Thomas Campbell Jackson

Venture Partner, Easton Capital Investment Group

Beth Jacobs
Managing Partner, Excellentia Global Partners; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Samie Jaffrey
Greenberg-Starr Professor, Pharmacology, Weill Cornell Medicine

Mae Jemison
Astronaut, Engineer, Physician; Lead, 100 Year Starship; Founder and President, The Jemison Group; Inductee, National Women's Hall of Fame & International Space Hall of Fame

David Joerg
Venture Partner, Two Sigma

Kristina Johnson
Chancellor, the State University of New York

Alex Kaczmarski
Director, Product Marketing, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Samantha Kappagoda
Co-Founder, Risk Economics, Inc.; RiskEcon® Lab for Decision Metrics, Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences

Yukihiko Kazao
Director General, STS Forum

Paul Kenny
Ward-Coleman Professor and Chair of the Arthur M. Fishberg Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Shinnie Kim
Program Officer, The Vilcek Foundation

Seema Kumar
Vice President, Innovation, Global Health, and Policy Communication, Johnson & Johnson; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Hillary Lane Hochberg

Pablo Legorreta
Founder & CEO, Royalty Pharma; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Joyce Li
Communications Manager, The Vilcek Foundation

Michael Liewen
Senior Vice President, Food Safety, Quality Assurance and Scientific & Regulatory Affairs, PepsiCo

Richard Lifton
President, The Rockefeller University

Chao Lu
Postdoctoral Associate, The Rockefeller University; Winner, 2017 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists

Hong Luo
Chair and Professor, Department of Physics, University at Buffalo

Ann-Kristin Lund
Consul and Deputy Head of Mission Trade and Economic Affairs, Consulate General of Sweden in New York

Fiona Mack
Director, External Innovation, Roche Innovation Center New York

Roderick MacKinnon
Nobel Laureate; John D. Rockefeller Jr. Professor, The Rockefeller University; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Husseini Manji
Global Therapeutic Head, Neuroscience, Johnson & Johnson

Dominic Margetson
Director, Brand Strategy, Microsoft

Szabolcs Marka
Walter O. LeCroy, Jr. Professor of Physics, Columbia University

H. Carl McCall
Chairman, Board of Trustees, the State University of New York

Dave McQueeney
Vice President, Computing as a Service, IBM Research

Donna Milrod
Former Managing Director, Head of DTCC Solutions; Chairman of the Board, DTCC Deriv/SERV LLC; Chairman of the Board of Managers, Omgeo; Treasurer, The New York Academy of Sciences

Surya Mohapatra
Former Chairman & CEO, Quest Diagnostics Inc.

David Mordecai
Co-Founder, Risk Economics, Inc.; RiskEcon® Lab for Decision Metrics, Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Ushma Neill
Vice President, Scientific Education and Training, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Melissa Nirenberg
Chief Medical Officer, New York Stem Cell Foundation

Masahiko Noda
Managing Director, Internal Affairs, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development

Timothy O'Connor
Executive Vice President, The Rockefeller University

Koji Omi
Chairman, STS Forum

Michael Overholtzer
Associate Member, Cell Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

G. Tayhas Palmore
Professor of Engineering, Brown University

Kevin Parker
CEO, Sustainable Insight Capital Management

Gretchen Peacock
Senior Manager, Engineering and Program Operations, Workforce Collaboration, Lockheed Martin

Pierre Pellier
Senior Vice President, Head of Global Medical Affairs, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

David Perlin
Executive Director and Professor, Public Health Research Institute, Rutgers University-Newark

Gregory Petsko
Professor of Neurology, Weill Cornell Medicine; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Aaron Pope
Programs Assistant, The Vilcek Foundation

Aparna Prabhakar
Associate Director, Corporate Strategy, IBM

Michael Purugganan
Dean for Science, Faculty of Arts & Science, New York University

Louis F. Reichardt
Director, Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative

Beatrice Renault
Chief Strategy Officer, The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation

Rory Riggs
Co-Founder and Chairman of the Investment Committee, Royalty Pharma

Wayne Riley
President, SUNY Downstate Medical Center

Mark Ritter
Senior Manager, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

George Rodriguez
Director, Argeni LLC; Advisory on Business & Technology, American Chemical Society New York

Alexander Roepers
Founder and CEO, Atlantic Investments

Ellis Rubinstein
President and CEO, The New York Academy of Sciences

Joanna Rubinstein
President and CEO, World Childhood Foundation USA

Ann Ruble
Operating Partner, Two Sigma Ventures

Tierney Saccavino
Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications, Acorda Therapeutics

Takiko Sano
Director, Washington Office, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development

David Scicchitano
Dean of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi

Brent Schimke
Chief Operating Officer, Data Cubed, Inc.

Ataman Sendoel
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Rockefeller University; Finalist, 2017 Blavatnik Regional Awards for Young Scientists

Laura Turner Seydel
Chairperson, Captain Planet Foundation

Samanta Shaw
Chief Operating Officer, The Human Project; Treasurer, Data Cubed, Inc.

Bill Sisson
Director, Sustainability, United Technologies Research Center

Scott Small
Director, Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; Boris and Rose Katz Professor of Neurology, Columbia University

Morten Sogaard
Vice President, Head of Genome Sciences & Technology, Pfizer Inc

Pamela Stanley
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Chair, Professor of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein School of Medicine

Kathleen Stern
Director, Bioethics and Portfolio Management, Global Science and Biomedical Policy, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Bruce Stillman
President, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Paul Stoffels
Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Douglas Stone
Carl A. Morse Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Physics, Yale University

Eileen Sullivan-Marx
Dean, Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York University

Bob Sutor
Vice President, Cognitive, Blockchain, and Quantum Solutions, IBM

Leah Taylor-Dunbar
Associate Creative Director, Listen

Andrew Tein
Vice President, Global Government Affairs, WILEY​

Craig B. Thompson
President and CEO, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Bill Thoet
Vice President, Aspen Brain Institute

Peter Thorén
Executive Vice President, Access Industries; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Yasuko Tokifuji
Senior Manager, Research & Development, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Magda Tomaszewski
Senior Account Director, Listen

Judy Verses
Executive Vice President, Research, WILEY

Brett Volker
Founding Partner, Listen

Alexander von Perfall
Vice President, Investor Relations & Public Affairs, Royalty Pharma

William Wachtel
Founding Partner, Wachtel Missry LLP; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

John Wagner
Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical and Translational Sciences, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Paul Walker
Technologist and Philanthropist; Vice-Chair, The New York Academy of Sciences

Douglas Wallace
Director, Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Grace Wang
Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, The State University of New York; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences

Elaine Weidman-Grunewald
Senior Vice President, Chief Sustainability & Public Affairs Officer, Ericsson

Debra Wexler
Chief Communications Officer, The Human Project

Torsten N. Wiesel
Nobel Laureate; President Emeritus, The Rockefeller University; Chairman Emeritus, The New York Academy of Sciences

Jeff Wilcox
Vice President for Engineering and Program Operations, Lockheed Martin

Richard Windram
Director, Government and External Affairs, Verizon

Isabel Yang
Vice President, World Wide Operations, IBM Research

Nicholette Zeliadt
News Reporter, Autism, Simons Foundation

Michael Zigman
President and CEO, NYC First; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences