NetMath

Summertime is coming! ☀️

Here's a short video highlight Dr. David H. Blackwell

David Blackwell - 2012 National Medal of Science David BlackwellUniversity of California, BerkeleyFor fundamental contributions to probability theory, mathematical statistics, information theory, mathematic...

The Department of Statistics is extremely fortunate to have as alumnus, the inimitable, internationally recognized African American scholar of statistics, Professor David H. Blackwell. His illustrious accomplishments have inspired the Department to initiate several important programmatic efforts in his name, which will be partly supported by contributions to the David H. Blackwell Diversity Fund. With support from our friends and alumni, we will be able to continue our graduate scholarship program for diversity, establish an undergraduate summer research program aimed to create opportunities for underrepresented minority populations in statistics, and support a distinguished lecture series.

The Department of Statistics at the University of Illinois is well poised to fulfill these programmatic efforts that are exemplary of Professor Blackwell’s name.
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The Department of Statistics () and Department of Mathematics () are currently accepting applications through February 28, 2022 for the David H. Blackwell Summer Scholars Program.
The Blackwell Summer Scholars program is open to rising junior and seniors in the mathematical sciences interested in learning more about statistics, data science, and mathematics. The 2022 program will begin on May 23.
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Go to shorturl.at/zDGKO for more information and submit your application today.


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Participants benefits include:
$3,000 stipend
Research and graduate application mentorship by faculty and graduate students
Networking, professional development, and career counseling
Opportunity to present a research poster at Illinois Summer Research Symposium

Highlighting a very distinguished Illinois math alumnus for Black History Month. David Blackwell earned all three of his degrees from the University of Illinois from 1938 - 1941. He was the first African-American to earn a PhD in mathematics at the University of Illinois. His original goal was to become an elementary school teacher, but decided to pursue his graduate degrees to teach higher education. Under the tutelage of Professor Joseph L. Doob Blackwell completed his dissertation, “Some Properties of Markov’s Chains”.

Dr. Blackwell went to on to obtain the Rosenwald Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) where it was customary for IAS members to receive visiting fellow appointments from the nearby Princeton University. However, due to racial discrimination, Dr. Blackwell nearly did not receive his appointment. Future positions include teaching for 10 years at Howard University, becoming Chairman of the Mathematics Department. He later went on to a full professorship at UC Berkeley in their Statistics Department of which he became chair until his retirement in 1988. David H. Blackwell died on July 8, 2010 at the age of 91.

Dr. Blackwell's exceptional achievements included 12 honorary doctorates along with numerous honors and awards during his lifetime. In October of 2014, then U.S. President, Barack Obama announced the recipients of the 2014 National Medal of Science award. Blackwell posthumously received the country’s highest distinction for contributions to scientific research and for his work in mathematics and statistics. For more information, go to https://rb.gy/m6wjuk (credit: )

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