everria had a burning curiosity about the way rocks were formed, and that curiosity had led her there.
Her research on chemical processes in the natural environment caught the eyes of recruiters at Corning, and her performance in critical postings devel- oping improved ways to produce ever- purer, more capable optical fibers for long-distance communications pushed her higher and higher. She rose to become the vice president for science and technology and the director of exploratory markets and technologies at Corning Glass Works, and earned a spot at the top of the 2006 Woman of Color Technology Awards, as Technolo- gist of the Year.
Along the way, Dr. Echeverria became a champion of diversity, knocking heads in Corning’s Paris, France, facil- ity to open the doors to professionals from Africa and Asia as well as South Americans like herself, after a difficult period early in her career in which she found her original ideas and research scoffed at because her perspective dif- fered from the accepted wisdom of the time. Dr. Echeverria also found time to develop consumer products such as Corning’s “Casual Elegance” line of cookware before she retired.
From Hot Rods to Academic Heights
Dr. Richard Tapia began life similarly to many Hispanic children, and indeed similarly to the pathway children of many minority communities take to arrive at professional careers. The son of Mexican immigrants, the young Richard Tapia was the first in his family to get a college education. World War II, and the hysteria extant after Pearl Harbor played a significant role in the life of the Tapia family, however.
Dr. Tapia’s father worked for Japanese- American horticulturists, and when the West Coast’s Japanese families were up- rooted and interned during World War II, his father maintained the business for his employers. Many other Japanese- Americans lost their businesses and found their homes looted and gutted after the war, and Dr. Tapia’s father’s employers rewarded him for keeping their property safe by setting him up in a business of his own. Thus, the young
48 HISPANIC ENGINEER & Information Technology | 2010
Richard Tapia and his brother were born into a family of entrepreneurs.
While in college, Dr. Tapia and his brother worked in an auto-body shop in Southern California, and the young Richard Tapia became a lifelong hot- rodder. And as Dr. Tapia recalled in a HE&IT interview, the drag racing brothers won National Hot Rod Association top honors in gasoline
Applied Mathematics Department has become a national leader in producing women and under- represented minority Ph.D. graduates in mathematical scienc- es. Some 35 students have received or are working on the Ph.D. under his direction or co-direction, and of them, 15 have been women and eight were underrepresent- ed minorities.
Dr. Richard Tapia
and fuel categories during the 1960s, cheered on by rooting sections from Watts, where their body shop was located.
Dr. Tapia completed his B.S. degree, Master of Science, and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics at the University of California-Los Angeles, and in 1967 he joined UCLA’s math department, moving on to the University of Wis- consin before settling at Rice University in Houston in 1970. Dr. Tapia chaired the math department in from 1978 to 1983, and has written two books and written or co-authored more than 80 mathematical research papers.
He continued his hot-rod career, too, developing a passion for rebuild- ing 1957 Chevrolets. A 1996 HE&IT cover story, “Rice’s Hot Rod Professor,” opened with him proudly showing off one of his project cars to students, wearing his trademark cowboy hat and boots.
Too Many Honors to List them All
That October, Dr. Tapia was named Hispanic Engineer of the Year for his work using computational mathematics to optimize factory work-flow, for his success as a mathematics educator, and for his long volunteer efforts to teach K-12 educators how to teach math to children from under-served, inner-city communities. Due to Dr. Tapia’s ef- forts, Rice University has won national recognition for its educational outreach programs and the university is proud to report that its Computational and
Now associate direc- tor of graduate stud- ies, Dr. Tapia supervis- es graduate students
from all subject areas, and university news releases say he not only meets regularly with them, but that, following his example, many of these students are involved in community and educa- tional outreach. Dr. Tapia also directs Rice’s National Science Foundation- funded Alliances for Graduate Educa- tion Program, providing opportuni- ties for undergraduate and graduate students in science, mathematics and engineering to participate in university activities and summer work, guided by researchers at Rice. Dr. Tapia also has helped improve the teaching of hundreds of K-12 teachers through his TeacherTECH summer program.
’Most Important,’ to be Sure
Dr. Tapia, recognized by HE&IT as one of the “50 Most Important Hispanics in Technology and Business,” also holds the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession (2004), a UCLA Alumni Association Award for Community Service, and an honorary Doctor of Science and Technology from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines. Among a long list of awards and recognition, Dr. Tapia has been hon- ored by NACME, the American Math- ematical Society, the National Atomic Museum Foundation of Hispanics in Science and Engineering, and the Texas Science Hall of Fame.
He was named a Distinguished Scientist by the Society for the Advancement
www.hispanicengineer.com
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