David Harold Blackwell Summer Research Institute

We are delighted to share the news of the launch of the David Harold Blackwell Summer Research Institute. Established with the aim of increasing the participation of African American students in the mathematical sciences, this six-week program will host its first cohort of undergraduate researchers in Summer 2021. This initiative is led by professors Todd Coleman (Stanford Bioengineering), Wilfrid Gangbo (UCLA Math), and Jelani Nelson (UC Berkeley EECS and Simons Institute), with staff support and convening space provided by the Simons Institute.

Participating students will conduct research under the guidance of one of the three project directors. In the final week of the program, participants will gather at the Simons Institute to network and share the results of their research.

The costs of student travel, meals, and lodging will be covered by the program. Applications are due January 31, 2021. Full information on this exciting new initiative is available on the program page. 

This month, we sat down with Simons Institute Senior Advisor Jelani Nelson, one of the leaders of the David Harold Blackwell Summer Research Institute, for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the genesis of the initiative, network effects in career trajectories, and strategies for broadening participation in the mathematical sciences.

References (mentioned in the interview)
David Blackwell interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqpf9tw44Xw 
CRA Taulbee Survey: https://cra.org/resources/taulbee-survey/ 
AMS Annual Survey: http://www.ams.org/profession/data/annual-survey/annual-survey 
David Harold Blackwell Summer Research Institute: https://ww3.math.ucla.edu/david-harold-blackwell-summer-research-institute/ 
International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI): https://ioinformatics.org 
USA Computing Olympiad (USACO): http://www.usaco.org 
Topcoder: https://www.topcoder.com
Code Forces: http://codeforces.com 
Berkeley Math Circle: https://mathcircle.berkeley.edu