Abstract

Successes and Challenges in Diversifying Research Universities and the National Science and Engineering Workforce.

Richard Tapia

The speaker will focus on the general challenges that the country faces today concerning increasing the representation of those groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in mathematics, science, and engineering. He will share relevant formative experiences encountered along his life's journey as a publically educated first generation Mexican American from the barrios of Los Angeles to a Rice University Mathematics Professor and a President Clinton appointee to the National Science Board. As the Director of the Rice mathematical and engineering sciences program, a program well recognized for its production of minority PhD's, he will describe challenges, successes , and lessons learned along the way. Particular attention will be paid to the role of mathematics and mathematicians.

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