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RONALD E. MCNAIR POST-BACCALAUREATE ACHIEVEMENT
PROGRAM
The McNair Program was authorized by
Congress in 1986, in memory of the Challenger
astronaut, Dr. Ronald Erwin McNair, who has
inspired so many students through his high
standards of academic achievement.
Dr. McNair was born in 1950 in a low-income
community in South Carolina. In 1971, he
graduated magna cum laude from The North
Carolina A&T State University with a Bachelor of
Science degree in Physics. He then enrolled at
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
where, at the age of 26, he earned his doctoral
degree in Laser Physics.
Dr. McNair became a recognized expert in Laser
Physics while working as a staff physicist with
Hughes Research Laboratory. He was selected by
NASA for the space shuttle program in 1978, and
was a Mission Specialist aboard the ill-fated
1986 flight of the space shuttle Challenger.
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