Ronald E. McNair

Ronald E. McNair exemplifies the achievement potential of highly-motivated people from low-income and first-generation backgrounds and those who come from groups underrepresented in graduate education.

Ronald E. McNair was born into a financially poor family on October 21, 1950 in Lake City, South Carolina. He was the first in his family to go to college, experiencing many hardships as he progressed through his academic and professional careers. Nonetheless, Ronald E. McNair achieved a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, received numerous honorary doctorate degrees, became a distinguished NASA astronaut, was a fifth-degree black belt Karate instructor, and was a performing jazz saxophonist.

Even though Dr. McNair's awards and special recognitions are numerous, he will be best remembered as among the unfortunate Space Shuttle personnel that died on January 28, 1986 when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after the launch from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Dr. McNair was a mission specialist on that flight.

The Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program is named in honor of Dr. McNair to encourage people from financially disadvantaged backgrounds that are the first in their families to go to college and people from groups underrepresented in graduate education that they can achieve top academic honors and professional achievement.

Undergraduate students coming from low-income and first-generation backgrounds and/or African-Americans, Hispanics, Native-American or Native-Alaskans demonstrating exemplar academic ability, a love of scholarship and research, sound study-management skills, and a determination to persevere through barriers to achieve academic success are invited to grow and develop in the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program.