Honoring the Legacy of our Founders and Elders

Dr. Richard A. Tapia (1938–2026) was an award-winning mathematician, distinguished professor at Rice University, and a foundational leader of SACNAS. He was a trailblazer for minority representation in STEM, celebrated as the most decorated Latino scientist of his generation. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Biography

• Early Life: Born on March 25, 1938, in Santa Monica, California, to Mexican immigrant parents. He was the first in his family to attend university, earning his associate’s degree from Los Angeles Harbor College and subsequently earning his bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from [UCLA](https://www. cmor-faculty.rice.edu/~rat/brief_bio.html). [1, 2, 3, 4]
• Academic Contributions: He spent over 50 years at Rice University, where he was a professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics. Rice bestowed on him the title of University Professor, becoming the first mathematician and only the sixth individual to receive this honor at the time. He was an internationally renowned researcher in optimization theory and numerical analysis with over 100 publications and supervised more than 30 doctoral dissertations, many with individuals from underrepresented groups. [1, 2, 3, 4].
• Awards & Honors: In 1992, he became the first U.S.-born Hispanic elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the National Science Board (1996-2002). He was awarded the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama in 2011 and the inaugural Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring in 1996, among many other awards and distinctions. Additionally, Dr. Tapia has two conferences named in his honor that reflect his work in both computational mathematics and student mentoring: the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference and the Blackwell-Tapia Conference, also named after the African-American statistician, David Blackwell [1, 2] A few weeks prior to his passing, the Houston Harris County Commissioners Court renamed a tollway ship channel bridge in his honor.
• He served as a key founder of SACNAS and co-authored the official history of SACNAS, helping guide its mission to achieve true diversity in STEM. [1, 2, 3]
• He was heavily featured in SACNAS biographies and magazine features, utilizing his platform to inspire the next generation of underrepresented minority students and women in computational sciences. [1, 2]
• Throughout his career, he directed Rice University's programs for underrepresented scholars, creating an environment where the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics (now renamed the Department of Computational Applied Mathematics and Operations Research) became a national leader in producing minority Ph.D. graduates. [1]

Personal Life: Beyond mathematics, Tapia was a passionate car enthusiast and a former drag-racing champion. [1, 2] He combined his love for cars and mathematics into a talk titled “Some Mathematical Insights into BMX Bicycle and Drag Racing”, a keynote address given at the 1999 SACNAS conference and at other venues.

Connection to SACNAS: Dr. Tapia was a vital figure in the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). [1] He was an integral part of the initial efforts to found SACNAS and he cast a new paradigm for motivating our students to pursue doctoral degrees. His mathematical lectures would weave together his life experiences and his family stories. The audience would come away with the thought their background could also lead to a scientific career. Many SACNAS professionals emulated this method of using their life experiences to connect with our students.

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Lifetime Member Dr. Luz Martinez-Miranda has passed away and we want to honor her memory and contributions to SACNAS and the scientific community at large. Luz was drawn to the world of science from an early age, influenced by a talented high school physics teacher, and by both of her parents being chemists. She attended the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, where she obtained both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics. She then obtained a doctoral degree in the same discipline from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she worked under the guidance of Robert Birgeneau, graduating with a thesis titled “Crossover Behavior and Fluctuations in the Vicinity of a Liquid Crystal Multicritical Point” in 1985. At this time, she was one of a few female students in her class at the MIT Department of Physics.   

Following graduation, she began a postdoctoral appointment at the University of California, Berkeley, working with Yuen-Ron Shen on the use of wetting substrates in aligning liquid crystals. She then joined the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering in 1987, with a secondary appointment in Materials Science and Engineering. At the University of Pennsylvania, she mentored then-graduate student Elisabeth Smela, who is now a professor of mechanical engineering in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at UMD.  She joined UMD as faculty in 1995 as an assistant professor in the then-Department of Materials and Nuclear Engineering, and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1998, and to full professor in 2023.  

Throughout her career, she dedicated her time to service to our university and professional societies. She was the third and first female president of the National Society of Hispanic Physicists, and also served on committees for Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science and APS. She played a crucial role in the UMD Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, directing the minority outreach program, and served as a student advisor for more than 25 years. She was also a member of both the University Senate and the Engineering Senate and was a fixture at the Clark School commencement, serving as a Faculty Marshal to help direct students as they walked to and from the stage to receive their diplomas.  She was dedicated to the department, sharing her time and enthusiasm with students and colleagues in classes, at seminars, meetings and departmental events. Never one to be shy, she was vocal in expressing her thoughts and opinions in each of these. Luz was part of the American Physical Society and SACNAS. She dedicated her life to science, service and mentoring students.

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