HR0094 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0094 LRB096 10860 GRL 21093 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to honor Dr. David Blackwell for his many professional and academic achievements; and

WHEREAS, Dr. David Blackwell was born on April 24, 1919 in Centralia, where he attended the local public schools; in 1935, at the age of sixteen, he entered the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1938, his master's degree in 1939, and his doctorate in 1941, all in mathematics; and

WHEREAS, After a post doctoral fellowship at Princeton and instructorships at Southern University and Clark College, Dr. David Blackwell joined the faculty of Howard University in 1944 as an instructor, achieving the ranks of Full Professor and Chairman in three years; and

WHEREAS, During his time at Howard University, Dr. David Blackwell distinguished himself as an excellent teacher, an able leader (as department chair from 1947 to 1954), and a very productive scholar, publishing more than twenty papers during his tenure; while in Washington, he met M. A. Girschick of the Department of Agriculture, who was a collaborator in many works, including their 1954 book, Theory of Games and Statistical Decisions, which became a classic in their field; when he joined the faculty at Berkeley, he chaired the Department of Statistics from 1957 to 1961 and published an additional 50-plus papers; and

WHEREAS, Dr. David Blackwell's professional activities as a scholar have brought him widespread recognition and acclaim; he has received honorary Doctorate of Science degrees from Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Illinois, Howard University, Carnegie-Mellon University, the University of Southern California, Michigan State University, Syracuse University, Southern Illinois University, the University of Warwick, the National University of Lesotho, and Amherst College; he has been selected to be president of the Institute of Mathematics Statistics, the International Association for Statistics in Physical Sciences, and the Bernoulli Society; he has served as Vice President of the International Statistical Institute, the American Statistical Association, and the American Mathematical Society; two of the highest honors bestowed upon him, however, have been his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1965, in which he is the first and only African-American mathematician to be elected, and his election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and

WHEREAS, Dr. David Blackwell served as President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1955; he is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society; in 1979, he won the von Neumann Theory Prize from the Operations Research Society of America; and

WHEREAS, Dr. David Blackwell has mentored and supervised the dissertations and research of many students in the fields of statistics and mathematics and is an inspiration to many minorities in scientific and analytical fields; he is generally acknowledged by the scientific community to be one of the finest statisticians and mathematicians that America has produced; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we honor Dr. David Blackwell for his many professional and academic achievements and wish him continued success in his future work; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Dr. David Blackwell as a symbol of our esteem and respect.