Building a Culture of Diversity in Higher Education: Obstacles and Successes

Provost's Lecture Series

Richard Tapia, a mathematician at Rice University in the Computational and Applied Mathematics Department, holds the rank of University Professor, the school’s highest academic title. He is a recipient of the National Medal of Science, the highest honor bestowed on scientists and engineers by the U.S. government; and was the first Hispanic elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Because of Tapia’s leadership, Rice is recognized as a national leader in the preparation of women and underrepresented minority doctoral degree recipients in science, engineering and math.

Extreme growth in the nation’s Hispanic population is forcing educational challenges; this fastest-growing segment of the population continues to be the least educated. Tapia will focus on the obstacles our universities must overcome to improve representation at the graduate and faculty levels, and will discuss his successful Rice program for improving graduate student representation. He also will talk about his own journey from being born in Los Angeles to parents who emigrated from Mexico to his trip to the White House to receive the National Medal of Science.

Co-sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Computational Science and the Center for Inclusive Education.