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10/17/1996 12:03:00 AM

Richard Tapia Receives Presidential Award for Science Mentoring

The White House recently named Richard Tapia, Noah Harding Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics, as one of the first recipients of a new award for excellence in mentoring.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy awarded Tapia a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 25.

The award recognizes Tapia's mentoring of students, particularly underrepresented minorities, in science, math and engineering.

As director of human resources and education for the Center for Research on Parallel Computation, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded center headquartered at Rice, Tapia initiated and now directs several outreach programs. These programs have, in less than 10 years, trained and encouraged more than 750 students and 700 teachers, many of them under-represented minorities, to pursue careers or interest students in math and science.

As associate director for minority affairs in the Office of Graduate Studies, Tapia has helped Rice's computational and applied mathematics department lead the nation in graduating women and minority Ph.D.s. Since joining the Rice faculty in 1970, Tapia has worked to increase the percentage of minority students and women at Rice, especially those studying math, science and engineering.

The NSF has awarded Rice a $10,000 grant to further enhance the mentoring of underrepresented minorities in math, science and engineering.