The National Blackwell-Tapia Committee has announced that Dr. Ronald E. Mickens is the recipient of the 2018 Blackwell-Tapia Prize. The award recognizes a “mathematician who has contributed significantly to research in his or her field of expertise, and 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 the underrepresentation of minorities in math.”
Dr. Mickens is the Distinguished Fuller E. Callaway Professor in the department of physics at Clark Atlanta University. He has worked at the historically Black university since 1990 as a teacher, mentor, and researcher. Before coming to Clark Atlanta, Dr. Mickens taught at Fisk University in Nashville for 12 years.
Professor Mickens has supported African Americans in mathematics throughout his career. He was selected as a charter Fellow of the National Society of Black Physicists in 1992 and received the Edward Bouchet Award for Excellence in Research from the National Conference of Black Physics Students in 2004. He is the author of Edward Bouchet: The First African American Doctorate (World Scientific Publishing Company, 2002).
Dr. Mickens is a graduate of Fisk University, where he studied mathematics and physics. He holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Vanderbilt University.
An exceptional scholar and even more amazing human being! Congrats, Dr. Mickens!