Richard A. Tapia

Richard Alfred Tapia (born March 25, 1939) is an American mathematician and University Professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas, the university's highest academic title. In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Tapia wih the Presidental Award for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Mentoring. In 2011, President Obama awarded Tapia the National Medal of Science. He is currently the Maxfield and Oshman Professor of Engineering; Associate Director of Graduate Studies, Office of Research and Graduate Studies; and Director of the Center for Excellence and Equity in Education at Rice University.

Tapia's mathematical research is centered on mathematical optimization and iterative methods for nonlinear problems, with his current work focused on algorithms for constrained optimization and interior point methods for linear and nonlinear programming. Provided by Wikipedia