RELATED ARTICLES: Discussions Ask Emeagwali questions on his life and work. You said it ... Real letters from Real folks This Man Is Hot By Baffour Ankomah + + + RELATED WEBSITES: Emeagwali's Website His wife His son

Have you ever wondered where all this new super-fast technology is coming from? The National Society of Black Engineers at Nashville, Tennessee know where it is coming from, and one of the main contributors is Dr. Philip Emeagwali. Dr. Emeagwali is an interdisciplinary computer scientist and inventor who developed software that allows multiple computer processors to tackle complex problems simultaneously. He improved computer efficiency by observing nature, more specifically bees and their geometrically advanced honeycombs. Dr. Emeagwali's creation destroyed a world record by computing at a rate that is three times the speed of the fastest supercomputers of today at one-fifth of the cost. The honeycomb structure of the world-record breaking computation process. Dr. Emeagwali grew up in Onitsha, Nigeria and was taught math by his father who soon gave up tutoring because, "He said I knew more than he did," said the younger Emeagwali. Although he did not remain in school past age 14 because of financial hardships, Dr. Emeagwali continued to study on his own. At 17, he passed a college entrance exam and received a scholarship to Oregon State University. After Oregon State, Dr. Emeagwali continued studies at George Washington University as well as the Universities of Maryland and Michigan. Between all of this schooling, Dr. Emeagwali managed to marry in 1981. He and his wife, Dr. Dale Brown Emeagwali, a microbiologist have one child, age five. He and his wife encourage children to enjoy science. Dr. Emeagwali has his own homepage and encourages adults and youths alike to cut off the television and 'surf the web'. The man deemed 'The Wizard' and 'The Fastest Man Alive' enjoys flying planes, skydiving, tennis and scuba diving in his spare time, though he has been known to spend an estimated 13 hours a day at the lab. Through his research and by his creation, he has solved a 55 year old math problem that is currently allowing OPEC (Oil and Petroleum Exporting Countries) to extract more oil and increase oil revenue. Emeagwali in front of the 55 year old math problem that he solved which won him the Gordon Bell Prize in 1989. The Pioneer of the Year Award is the most prestigious recognition given to individuals whose intellectual contributions have benefited all mankind. In addition to upgrading the process of oil extraction, Dr. Emeagwali's computers are currently being used to forecast the weather, predict future global warming and help scientist better grasp the effects of greenhouse gases by computing at 3.1 billion calculations in a second. A research scientist in St. Paul, Minnesota, Dr. Philip Emeagwali brings the triumphs of Africans in America and African-Americans out of the Black History Month phenomena and into daily life. Reported in South Carolina Black Media Group, May 16-22, 1996. Click on this icon to Click on emeagwali.com for more information.