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WILLINGBORO (New Jersey) --- Philip Emeagwali, an award-winning scientist, will visit five schools in Willingboro, New Jersey on February 25 and 26, 1999. They have described him as "one of the greatest intellectual giants Africa has produced." His notable inventions include the world's fastest computation of 3.1 billion calculations per second in 1989. Emeagwali has won many prestigious scientific awards, including the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize (computing's Nobel Prize). A sixth grade student, Robert K. Matthews Jr., at Garfield East Elementary School invited Emeagwali --- after doing a project on his life and work. "He would be a great role model for the kids in my class and school," said Mr. Matthews. Emeagwali dropped out of school, after completing the seventh grade, and lived with his family in the Biafran-war refugee camp. He completed his early education by self study and emigrated to the United States to earn graduate degrees in five different fields. "We are delighted he is coming. He will inspire and talk to the kids about what he is doing --- inventing," said Mrs. Gloria Matthews, the coordinator of his visit to Willingboro schools. The school board is sponsoring Emeagwali's visit as part of its Black History Month celebration. Emeagwali believes that technology is the engine that drives our nation's economic growth and science education should be compulsory in all American schools. "Children are the vital building blocks of our nation and our link to the future," he says. Emeagwali explained that "investing in education and technology will be our legacy to our children; because it will bring the best out of them and all Americans and enable us to reach our potential as individuals, as communities, as a nation." "We must ensure that schools properly educate our children. When we invest in our children, we will find that our standard of living grows, too. We should invest in education and technology not because it is easy, but because our children will be the beneficiaries tomorrow of the decisions, we adults, make today," he says. Each week, his web site (http://emeagwali.com) is used to reinforce the teaching in 6,000 K-12 schools. He inspires students by answering their e-mail and telling them to practice solving one hundred math problems a day --- a technique his father used to teach him during his pre-teenage years.
On February 25, Emeagwali will speak to students at Hawthorne Park Elementary School from 9:15 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Next he will visit Willingboro High School where Mrs. Judith Burgess, Educational Media Specialist, and the Black History Month Committee will greet him. He will speak with the students and staff. Then he will speak to students at Garfield East Elementary from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. On February 26, he will speak to students at S. W. Bookbinder Elementary 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Then he will speak to students at Pennypacker Elementary School from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. At 3:30 p.m. on February 26, 1999, there will be a public reception for him at the library of Hawthorne Park Elementary.
Hawthorne Park Elementary School
Willingboro High School
Released on February 22, 1999.
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Click on emeagwali.com for more information.
