Blackwell-Tapia Conference and Award Ceremony
This biennial conference and prize honors two seminal figures who inspired a generation of African American, Latino/Latina, and Native American students to pursue careers in mathematics—David H. Blackwell, the first African-American member of the National Academy of Science, and Richard A. Tapia, winner of the National Medal of Science in 2010. The conference
- recognizes and showcases mathematical excellence by minority researchers;
- recognizes and disseminates successful efforts to address underrepresentation;
- informs students and mathematicians about career opportunities in mathematics; and
- provides networking opportunities from mathematical researchers at all stages of higher education and career trajectory.
The Blackwell-Tapia prize recognizes a mathematician who has served as a role model for mathematical scientists and students from underrepresented minority groups or has contributed in other significant ways to addressing the problem of underrepresentation of minorities in mathematics.
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The 2020 recipient of the Blackwell-Tapia Prize is Dr. Tatiana Toro, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington, Seattle. |
Participant Experiences
- “The conference strengthened my relationship with colleagues at other universities.”
- “The main thing that I got out of the Blackwell-Tapia Conference is confidence. Having a group composed mainly of minorities organizing and discussing topics in science and mathematics really gave me the ‘I can do it also’ feeling some necessary to keep going in research.”
- “I am currently in my penultimate year of graduate school and feel the Blackwell-Tapia conference has greatly inspired me throughout my graduate career. I hope to continue to remain involved after graduate school.”
- “I met graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty that I have been informally advising and mentoring. This has been a very rewarding experience. In addition, I initiated a new collaboration with a junior faculty member, which I hope will lead to a publication in the near future.”
Conference Photos
Previous Conferences |
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2018 organized by ICERM |
2016 organized by NIMBioS |
2014 organized by IPAM |
2012 organized by ICERM |
2010 organized by MBI |
2008 organized by SAMSI |
2006 organized by IMA |
2004 organized by IPAM |
2002 organized by MSRI |
The first Blackwell-Tapia conference was established at Cornell University in 2000, organized by Carlos Castillo-Chavez through the Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology. The $5000 award began in 2002 and has been funded by Cornell. |