Who is Ronald E. McNair? >>

Dr. Ronald E. McNair was the second African American to fly into space. Although he faced many cultural and economic hardships as a youth, Dr. McNair earned a BS degree in physics from North Carolina A&T State University in 1971, where he graduated magna cum laude. In 1976, he obtained his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. McNair was one of 35 applicants selected from a pool of ten thousand admitted in NASA's Space Shuttle Program. On January 28, 1986, Ronald E. McNair, along with six crew members, tragically died while aboard the space shuttle Challenger . McNair was nationally recognized for his work in the field of laser physics. The U.S. Congress   endowed the Ronald E. McNair Post baccalaureate Achievement Program to encourage college students with similar backgrounds to Dr. McNair to enroll in graduate study.