UT Austin mathematics professor named by Black Issues in Higher Education magazine as one of outstanding 20th century leaders in higher education

January 14, 2000

AUSTIN, Texas—Dr. Uri Treisman, a mathematics professor at The University of Texas at Austin who is director of the Charles A. Dana Center, has been named as one of the outstanding leaders in higher education in the 20th century by the magazine Black Issues In Higher Education.

The magazine's December 23 issue highlights the people and events having the greatest impact on minorities in the 20th century. Treisman was honored along with civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., agricultural researcher George Washington Carver and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks.

Treisman is renowned for developing programs that have dramatically increased the number of minorities who enter mathematics, science, engineering and related disciplines. At the University of California at Berkeley in the 1970s, Treisman started what is now known as the Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), designed to increase the number of minority and other underserved students who succeed in calculus. Treisman was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1992 for his studies at the University of California at Berkeley of factors that support high achievement among minority students in calculus. The ESP program developed by Treisman became a model used by colleges and universities throughout the United States.

As founder and director of the Charles A. Dana Center, Treisman develops strategies for strengthening education in Texas and nationwide. The Charles A. Dana Center is an organized research unit in UT Austin's College of Natural Sciences dedicated to strengthening education and civic life in Texas. The Dana Center serves as an incubator of innovative programs and practices designed to support local and state agencies, school districts and civic organizations as they work together to serve their Texas constituencies in ways that reflect local beliefs and values.

CONTACT: For additional information, contact Professor Uri Treisman at (512) 471-6190, or the UT Office of Public Affairs at (512) 471-3151. For more information, visit the Charles A. Dana Center.