Ron Buckmire (born 1968) is a Grenadian-born mathematician, former

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

champion of

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

and

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

activist. He is the past chair of the

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

Department of Mathematics. Starting in August 2018, he served as the Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs and Director of the Core Program at

for four years.

Early life and education

Buckmire was born in 1968 in Grenville, Grenada. In 1969 his family moved to the United States while his father earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and in 1978 they moved to

. There Buckmire attended high school at the Combermere School. Buckmire returned to the United States in 1986 to attend the

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

(RPI), graduating with a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in three years and earning his Ph.D. in 1994, both in mathematics. His dissertation was on

transonic Transonic (or transsonic) flow is air flowing around an object at a speed that generates regions of both subsonic and supersonic airflow around that object. The exact range of speeds depends on the object's critical Mach number, but transonic ...

aerodynamic flow, titled "The Design of Shock-Free Transonic Slender Bodies", under the advisement of Julian David Cole and Donald William Schwendeman.

Career

In 1994 he joined Occidental College as a postdoctoral researcher, and in 1996 he gained an appointment there as an assistant professor. After being granted tenure and promotion in 2004 he served as department chair from 2005 to 2010. His research interests include

computational fluid dynamics Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate th ...

for aerodynamics, nonstandard finite difference schemes, and the application of mathematical models to unusual phenomena such as the financial performance of movies. From 2011 to 2013 Buckmire was a Program Director (rotator) at the National Science Foundation (NSF), in the Division of Undergraduate Education. After returning to Occidental he was promoted to Full Professor in 2014 and served as interim department chair for three semesters starting in Fall 2015. In summer 2016 he returned to NSF as Lead Program Director, a position he held until 2018. Starting in 2021, he is serving as

SIAM Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...

's first Vice President for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. His term as Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs and Director of the Core Program at

ended in August 2022.

Research

Buckmire's research is in the area of applied mathematics, particular investigating numerical solutions of

ordinary differential equations In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation (ODE) is a differential equation whose unknown(s) consists of one (or more) function(s) of one variable and involves the derivatives of those functions. The term ''ordinary'' is used in contrast w ...

and

partial differential equations In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be solved for, similarly to ...

. He has published multiple papers that show how to use nonstandard finite difference schemes to produce approximations to solutions of the

Liouville–Bratu–Gelfand equation : ''For Liouville's equation in differential geometry, see Liouville's equation.'' In mathematics, Liouville–Bratu–Gelfand equation or Liouville's equation is a non-linear Poisson equation, named after the mathematicians Joseph Liouville, G. B ...

in one-dimension and in cylindrical or spherical coordinates.

Activism

Buckmire is also known as an LGBT activist. He came out during college in 1988 or 1989, having gained information about homosexuality through the early Internet. He became active in several student organizations at RPI, including serving as president of the Rensselaer Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Association and even co-founding the Women Students Association. In 1991 he began the Queer Resources Directory, an online resource that for information on issues relating to sexual minorities, and in the 1990s administered several queer electronic mailing lists/discussion groups. He was also active in outreach through radio, co-creating a queer local radio show called ''Homo Radio'' while at RPI, and later becoming a contributor to ''This Way Out'', a national radio

newsmagazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or new ...

show. He organized a mailing list associated with LGBT meetups at the

Joint Mathematics Meetings The Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) is a mathematics conference hosted annually in early January by the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Frequently, several other national mathematics organizations also participate. The meeting is the largest g ...

; this group of people evolved into Spectra.

Awards and recognition

Buckmire was awarded the

NOGLSTP Out to Innovate, previously the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP), is a professional society for professionals in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering. Each year, Out to Innovate g ...

GLBTA Educator of the Year for 2011. Buckmire was also recognized by Mathematically Gifted & Black as a Black History Month 2018 Honoree. He was elected to the 2023 Class of

Fellows.

Personal life

From his youth, Buckmire participated in competitive chess, becoming Barbados Junior Champion four times and National Champion three times, and as of 1997 was ranked as a

senior master There are various levels of judiciary in England and Wales—different types of courts have different styles of judges. They also form a strict hierarchy of importance, in line with the order of the courts in which they sit, so that judges ...

and one of the top 250 chess players in the United States. Buckmire is married to Dean Elzinga, a former professional opera singer who is now a data scientist.

References

External links

Professional Website at Occidental College

Faculty Website at Occidental College

Queer Resources Directory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckmire, Ron 1968 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians African-American mathematicians American radio personalities American LGBT broadcasters Grenadian LGBT people American LGBT rights activists Occidental College faculty People from Saint Andrew Parish, Grenada Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Grenadian emigrants to the United States Activists from California Grenadian LGBT scientists LGBT academics LGBT mathematicians 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics