Announced January 31, 2023 - Visionary Mathematician Dr. Talitha Washington Named 2022 AAAS Fellow
The world’s largest general scientific society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), has elected Dr. Talitha Washington to the 2022 class of AAAS Fellows. Dr. Washington received recognition for “distinguished contributions to diversity in mathematics and the sciences and service to the mathematics profession.”
“At the Atlanta University Center, our faculty lead the way in educating Black students who advance new knowledge, discoveries, and innovations that will impact our world,” said Dr. David A. Thomas, chair of the AUC Council of Presidents and president of Morehouse College. “Dr. Washington is a visionary leader who is bringing transformative change to the national data science landscape for the betterment of our society.”
The world’s largest general scientific society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), has elected Dr. Talitha Washington to the 2022 class of AAAS Fellows. Dr. Washington received recognition for “distinguished contributions to diversity in mathematics and the sciences and service to the mathematics profession.”
“At the Atlanta University Center, our faculty lead the way in educating Black students who advance new knowledge, discoveries, and innovations that will impact our world,” said Dr. David A. Thomas, chair of the AUC Council of Presidents and president of Morehouse College. “Dr. Washington is a visionary leader who is bringing transformative change to the national data science landscape for the betterment of our society.”
Announced August 2022 - Historic $10 Million NSF Grant Establishes the National Data Science Alliance to Expand Data Science at HBCUs
Clark Atlanta University makes history as the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to receive a $10 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) INCLUDES program to establish the National Data Science Alliance (NDSA).
The NDSA builds on the collaborative data science work at the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Consortium member institutions, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Spelman College, as well as the AUC Robert Woodruff Library.
The NDSA will increase the number of Black people earning data science credentials by at least 20,000 by 2027 and expand data science research that advocates for social justice and strive to eliminate bias.
Clark Atlanta University makes history as the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to receive a $10 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) INCLUDES program to establish the National Data Science Alliance (NDSA).
The NDSA builds on the collaborative data science work at the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Consortium member institutions, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Spelman College, as well as the AUC Robert Woodruff Library.
The NDSA will increase the number of Black people earning data science credentials by at least 20,000 by 2027 and expand data science research that advocates for social justice and strive to eliminate bias.
As a mathematical scholar, Dr. Talitha Washington educates and stewards students, faculty, and the larger community to impact the grand challenges of our world.
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From UConn Magazine, Summer 2022 - Revenge of the Data Scientists
"'She has done wonders for the mathematics community,' says Choi. Washington’s work has garnered many industry accolades, among them an NSF Women’s History Maker award and a Howard University Outstanding Faculty award. She recently became the first person ever to be named both a 2021 Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) — one of just 46 Fellows from around the world — and a 2021 Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) in the same year. She is now the president-elect of AWM. None of this surprised McKenna. 'Indomitable is the word I’d use,' he said. 'You could see the joy she had in doing what she did. And she was just not intimidated by anything.'" |
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ABout
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Dr. Talitha Washington is the inaugural Director of the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Data Science Initiative, a Professor of Mathematics at Clark Atlanta University and an affiliate faculty at Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Spelman College. She is the Director and lead principal investigator of the NSF-funded National Data Science Alliance (NDSA) and the President of the Association for Women in Mathematics. She works across Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to increase the number of Blacks with expertise in data science and expand data science research that advocates for social justice.
Dr. Washington is a former Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) who worked in the Convergence Accelerator which is now in the Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP). Previously, as a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education, she was instrumental in building and establishing NSF's first Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program which funded $40,000,000 in awards in FY19. She was elected to honor societies Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, and mathematics honor societies Kappa Mu Epsilon and Pi Mu Epsilon. She is the recipient of the 2019 BEYA STEM Innovator Award, the 2019 Outstanding Faculty Award from Howard University, and the 2020 NSF Director's Award for Superior Accomplishment. She is a Fellow of the African Scientific Institute (ASI), the American Mathematical Society (AMS), the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Washington completed her undergraduate studies in mathematics at Spelman College and studied abroad at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, Mexico. She earned her master's and doctoral degrees in mathematics from the University of Connecticut. She was a VIGRE Research Associate in the Department of Mathematics at Duke University. She held assistant professorships at The College of New Rochelle and the University of Evansville, an associate professorship at Howard University, and most recently, a full professorship at Clark Atlanta University. Dr. Washington is an in-demand speaker who enjoys sharing her expertise on applied mathematics as well as STEM diversity to a wide range of audiences. Her work on Dr. Elbert Frank Cox, the first Black in the world to earn a PhD in mathematics, has been shared on radio and television stations, as well as in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society. Her research interests include the applications of differential equations to problems in biology and engineering, as well as the development of nonstandard finite difference schemes to numerically solve dynamical systems. Click for high resolution photos. |
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speaking engagements
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Ongoing, Host, AUC Data Science Seminar Series, Virtual
April 1, 2023, Keynote, Data Science Celebration, HBCU Data Science Consortium, Austell, GA April 18, 2023, Speaker, Winning Large-Scale Federal Awards, HBCU Engage, University-Industry Developing Partnerships (UIDP), Nashville, TN May 1 2023, Speaker, A Mathematical Journey: From Dynamical Systems to Data Science, AAFRL/AFOSR Chief Scientist Distinguished Lectured Series, Virtual August 20-25, 2023, Speaker, Challenges for US Women in Math and Activities of the AWM, International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan / Hybrid |
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