The New Class of MLK Scholars at MIT

Since its creation in 1991, the Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professors and Scholars Program has brought more than 90 scholars to campus to teach and conduct research, usually for a one- or two-year term.

This year there are six new MLK professors and scholars on campus. Four of the six are African Americans.

Robert Hampshire is an assistant professor at the John H. Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. His research is focused on urban transportation systems and ways to reduce congestion and air pollution.

Prior to joining the faculty at Carnegie Mellon, he worked at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and Bell Laboratories, among others. He holds a Ph.D. in operations research and financial engineering from Princeton University.

Terrence Blackman is an instructor in the mathematics department at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York. His interests are number theory, the teaching and learning of mathematics in urban, majority African-American settings, and the integration of technology.

Dr. Blackman earned a Ph.D. in 2011 from the City University of New York.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine. His writing focuses on issues of politics, culture, and society. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood.

Coates graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute high school and enrolled at Howard University in Washington. He dropped out of college to pursue a career in journalism.

Thomas Epps III holds the Thomas and Kipp Gutshall Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware. He holds a joint appointment in materials science and engineering.

Dr. Epps joined the faculty at the University of Delaware as an assistant professor in 2006.

Professor Epps holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned  Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota.

Related Articles

1 COMMENT

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

Three Black Leaders Appointed to Diversity Positions at Colleges and Universities

The three scholars appointed to admininstraive positions relating to diversity are Marsha McGriff at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, JeffriAnne Wilder at Oberlin College in Ohio, and Branden Delk at Illinois state University.

Remembering the Impact of Black Women on College Basketball

As former college basketball players, we are grateful that more eyes are watching, respecting and enjoying women’s college basketball. However, we are equally troubled by the manner in which the history of women’s basketball has been inaccurately represented during the Caitlin Clark craze.

Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney Announces Retirement

In 2014, Dr. Berger-Sweeney became the first African American and first woman president of Trinity College since its founding in 1823. Over the past decade, the college has experienced growth in enrollment and graduation rates, hired more diverse faculty, and improved campus infrastructure.

Featured Jobs