Philip Emeagwali
home page: http://emeagwali.com/
Philip Emeagwali's father went to school with Chike Obi, the first African to get a Ph.D. in Mathematics. Philip Emeagwali was born in 1954 in Nigeria. He was raised in the town of Onitsha which is located in South-Eastern Nigeria. Dubbed "Calculus" by schoolmates, Emeagwali at age 14 had mastered the subject, and could even out-calculate his instructors. Then a crisis struck. He had to drop out of school because his family could not afford to send all eight children. But he continued studying on his own, and after getting a general certificate of education from the University of London. At the age of 17, he was awarded a full scholarship to Oregon State University where he majored in math. Upon graduation, he attended George Washington University and was awarded two engineering master's degrees, one in civil engineering and the other in marine engineering, a master's in mathematics from the University of Maryland. He later achieved his doctorate from the University of Michigan in civil engineering (really scientific computing). Philip Emeagwali's greatest achievement, that warranted him the most praise, was The Connection Machine. The Connection Machine utilizes 65,000 computers linked in parallel to form the fastest computer on Earth. This computer can perform 3.1 billion calculations per second. This is faster than the theoretical top speed of the Cray Supercomputer. Though he did not "invent" The Connection Machine, his work on it won Philip Emeagwali the Gordon Bell Prize of 1989. The parallel computer was twice as fast as the previous year's computer. The Connection Machine was a great advancement over previous designs built by IBM's design teams of Thomas J. Watson, Jr. and Fred Brook.
At the Army High Performance Computing Research Center at the University of Minnesota, Emeagwali conducts research on next-generation supercomputers that will enable scientists and engineers to solve important problems in diverse fields: meteorology, energy, the environment, health, etc. He has also worked with the Maryland State Highway Administration, U.S. National Weather Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the University of Michigan, where he conducted his award-winning research.
"I find supercomputing to be a fascinating, challenging, and critical technology that can be used to solve many important societal problems, such as predicting the spread of AIDS, and many other computational `grand challenges.' These are scientific problems whose accurate solution requires that a quadrillion or more arithmetical calculations be performed," the computer wiz says. Such problems are impossible to solve on traditional computers, but massively parallel supercomputers will make it possible.
Major Awards and Prizes Mr. Emeagwali has won many awards and prizes including:
The Nigeria Prize-Africa's largest scholarly prize Scientist of the Year-from The National Society of Black Engineers
Pioneer of the Year-from The National Society of Black Engineers
The Nigerian Achiever Award-In 1994
Distinguished Scientist Award-In 1991 from The National Society of Black Engineers in America
Gordon Bell Prize-In 1989 for The Connection Machine Contributions to Computer Science and to the World Community
In 2004, one of the 50 Most Important Blacks in Research Science
Philip Emeagwali designed the program and formula for the fastest computer on earth, the Connection Machine. He designed the system of parallel computers that are used by all search engines, for example Yahoo or Search.com. The parallel computer idea was also worked on by individuals such as Burton Smith and Daniel Hillis.
The Connection Machine with a program developed by Philip Emeagwali solved a 350 year old packing problem that was considered to be one of the great unsolved mathematics problems. The Connection Machine and Mr. Emeagwali also designed equations to explain how sperm swim, how polluted groundwater flows, how the Earth's interior moves and causes volcanic eruptions, finally how to recover petroleum safer and in larger quantities.
Finally Philip Emeagwali designed the Hyperball computer which is able to forecast long-term global warming patterns.
Bibliography:
1) "Brain to Brain: Network links 3 million computers worldwide." July 8, 1991 Detroit Free Press. http://www.emeagwali.com/usa/michigan/brain-to-brain-detroit-free-press.html
2) "Award Winner Cites NSFNET Reliability." Link Letter of the Merit Network, Inc. May/June 1990. http://www.emeagwali.com/usa/michigan/NSFnet-merit-network-supercomputer-centers-national-science-foundation.html
3) "Practical Math: Emeagwali puts math to work in real world." May 29, 1990. Detroit Free Press. http://www.emeagwali.com/usa/michigan/practical-mathematics-supercomputers-d etroit-free-press.html
4) "Superbrain of Africa: He's developed the world's fastest computer-and that's just the beginning." March 19, 1998. Drum: http://emeagwali.com/africa/south-africa/drum.html
5) "Philip Emeagwali." The Philip Emeagwali official web site.:http://www.emeagwali.com/education/inventions-discoveries/
6). NSBE Interview (2002) with Philip Emeagwali All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergartem.
7) communications with other Black computer scientists.
| This website was created by and is maintained
by Dr. Scott Williams, Professor of Mathematics State University of New York at Buffalo |
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