Is richard tapia still alive

Biography

Richard Tapia's parents were Amado and Magda Tapia. He was born into an Hispanic American family with his father Amado Tapia emigrating to the United States from Nayarit in Central Mexico, while his mother Magda emigrated from Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. Richard and his twin brother were the eldest children in the family of five, having two younger brothers and one sister. Amado and Magda never completed their school education since both of them had to leave school to help support their families. However they provided encouragement to their children:-

I learned from my mother and father many important things - good work habits, belief in yourself, pride in who you are, respect for others, and sensitivity to their needs. My mother taught me that you can do anything that you want; you just have to stay determined and not give up. There was nothing that was going to prevent my mother from achieving her goal once she set her mind to it.

Richard developed a liking for mathematics while at school:-

... from the first grade on, my brother and I did very well in mathemat

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Richard Alfred Tapia

BiographyMathSciNet

Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles 1967

Dissertation: A Generalization of Newton's Method with an Application to the Euler-Lagrange Equation

Mathematics Subject Classification: 49—Calculus of variations and optimal control

Advisor 1: Magnus Rudolph Hestenes
Advisor 2: Charles Brown Tompkins

Students:
Click here to see the students ordered by family name.

Name	School	Year	Descendants
de Montricher, Gilbert	Rice University	1973
McCarthy, Mary	Rice University	1973
Guerra, Victor	Rice University	1974
Byrd, Richard	Rice University	1976	5
Scott, David	Rice University	1976	34
Anderson, George	Rice University	1978
Hiebert, Kathie	Rice University	1978
Nocedal, Jorge	Rice University	1978	17
Garg, Naresh	Rice University	1979
Fontecilla, Rodrigo	Rice University	1983
Celis Avalos, Maria	Rice University	1985
Dean, Edward	Rice University	1985
Parks, Theresa	Rice University	1985
Carter, Richard	Rice University	1986
El Hallabi, Mohammedi	Rice Univer • Lathisms 2016 Richard Tapia was born in Los Angeles, California to parents who immigrated from Mexico. In 2010 he was awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on scientists and engineers. He is a mathematician in Rice University ’s Computational and Applied Mathematics Department and holds the rank of University Professor, the university’s highest academic title awarded to only seven individuals in the university’s history. Among his numerous other honors is the National Science Board’s Vannevar Bush Award and election to the National Academy of Engineering, the first Hispanic to receive these honors. He holds honorary doctorates from Carnegie Mellon University, Colorado School of Mines, University of Nevada, Claremont Graduate University, Portland State University and the University of Rhode Island. Two professional conferences have been named in his honor: the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference and the Blackwell-Tapia Mathematics Conference. Tapia served on the National Science Board from 1996- Copyright ©oilpike.pages.dev 2025