I Am... Ronald McNair, who was a physicist and NASA astronaut. In 1971, I received a bachelor's degree in engineering physics with magna cum laude from North Carolina A&T State University. And in 1976, I received a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I've received three honorary doctorates. I died during a lunch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STL-51-L. I was 35-years-old.

Ronald McNair remains honored in HBCUs with the McNair Scholars Program, which is a federal TRIO program funded at 200 institutions across the United States and Puerto Rico by the U.S. Department of Education. It is design to prepare undergraduate students for doctoral studies through involvement in research and other scholarly activities. McNair participant are either first-generation college student with financial need, or members of a group that it traditionally underrepresented in graduate education and have demonstrated strong academic potential.

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