Richard Alfred Tapia (Los Angeles, – 22 de maio de 2026) foi um matemático estadunidense.
Carreira Foi representante das minorias sub-representadas em ciência. Tapia é o "Principal investigator" de um NFS grant de 2 milhões de dólares (2007-2010) destinado a interligar "estudantes ou professores de instituições menores com seus pares de instituições maiores". Em reconhecimento a sua ampla contribuição, em 2005 Tapia foi nomeado University Professor da Universidade Rice em Houston, Texas, o mais elevado título acadêmico universitário dos Estados Unidos. Esta honraria foi outorgada para somente seis professores de Rice durante os noventa e nove anos de sua história. Em 28 de setembro de 2011 o president Barack Obama anunciou que Tapia estava entre os doze cientistas a serem condecorados com a Medalha Nacional de Ciências, o mais significativo prêmio que os Estados Unidos oferece a seus pesquisadores.
Tapia morreu no dia 22 de maio de 2026, aos 87 anos.
Educação Ph.D., Universidade da Califórnia em Los Angeles, 1967 (Matemática) Tese: "A Generalization of Newton's Method with an Application to the Euler-Lagrange Equation" Orientadores: Magnus Hestenes, Charles Tompkins M.A., University of California, Los Angeles, 1966 (Matemática) B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, 1961 (Matemática)
Postos universitários 2005–present: University Professor, Rice University 2005–present: Maxfield and Oshman Professor of Engineering, Rice University 2000–present: Adjunct Professor, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Houston 1999–present: Director, Center for Excellence and Equity in Education, Rice University 1991 - 2005: Noah Harding Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Rice University 1989–present: Associate Director of Graduate Studies, Office of Research and Graduate Studies, Rice University 1989 - 2000:Director of Education and Outreach Programs, Center for Research on Parallel Computation, Rice University 1986 - 1988: Lecturer, Department of Community Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine 1978 - 1983: Adjunct Professor, T.I.R.R., (then called the Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research) Baylor College of Medicine 1978 - 1983: Chair, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Rice University 1976–present: Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Rice University 1972 - 1976: Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Rice University 1970 - 1972: Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Rice University 1968 - 1970: Assistant Professor, Mathematics Research Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Honrarias e prêmios selecionados Medalha Nacional de Ciências, 2011. Hispanic Heritage Award in Math and Science, September 2009. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession, Portland OR, July 2004. Community Service Award, University of California Los Angeles Alumni Association, Los Angeles, California, May 2004. Hispanic Engineer & Information Technology Magazine, "One of the 50 Most Important Hispanics in Technology and Business" April 2004. Distinguished Public Service Award, American Mathematical Society, Phoenix, Arizona, January 2004. Texas Science Hall of Fame Inductee, Institute of Texan Cultures, University of Texas, San Antonio, Texas, January 2002. Reginald H. Jones Distinguished Service Award, NACME, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, October 2001. Distinguished Scientist Award, Society for the Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) National Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2000. 1999 Giants in Science Award, Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network, Washington, DC, February 1999. 1997 Lifetime Mentor Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 1998. Recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, National Science Foundation, Washington, DC, September 1996. Appointed to the National Science Board by President Clinton, August 1996. National Academy of Engineering, February 1992. Was chosen to have a "Celebration of Diversity in Computing" conference named after him (usually held biannually the current (or most recent) Richard Tapia conference web page). Actually, maybe that should be 1.5 conferences, counting [half of] the Blackwell-Tapia_prize#Blackwell-Tapia_Conference.
Referências
Ligações externas
"Tapia Video Biography", The Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice University.
"Tapia promoted to University Professor", Rice University News Release.
Categoria:Medalha Nacional de Ciências Categoria:Membros da SIAM Categoria:Membros da Academia Nacional de Engenharia dos Estados Unidos Categoria:Professores da Universidade Rice Categoria:Matemáticos dos Estados Unidos Categoria:Matemáticos dos Estados Unidos do século XX Categoria:Alunos da Universidade da Califórnia em Los Angeles Categoria:Naturais de Los Angeles