Ron Buckmire
Ron Buckmire (born 1968) is a Grenadian-born mathematician and LGBT activist. He is the past chair of the Occidental College Department of Mathematics. In August 2018, he became the Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs and Director of the Core Program at Occidental College. 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. degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and in 1978 they moved to Barbados. There Buckmire attended high school at the Combermere School. Buckmire returned to  the United States in 1986 to attend the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), graduating with a B.S. degree in three years and earning his Ph.D. in 1994, both in mathematics. His dissertation was on 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. His research interests include computational fluid dynamics for aerodynamics, nonstandard finite difference schemes, and the application of mathematical models to unusual  phenomena such as the financial performance of movies. In 2011 Buckmire became a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. In 2013 he was promoted to Lead Program Director, a position he held until 2018. Starting in 2021, he will serve as SIAM's first Vice President for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. 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 discussion groups. He was also active in outreach through radio, co-creating a queer local radio station while at RPI, and later becoming a contributor to "This Way Out", a national radio newsmagazine show. He organized a mailing list associated with LGBT meetups at the Joint Mathematics Meetings; this group of people evolved into Spectra. Awards and recognition. Buckmire was awarded the NOGLSTP GLBTA Educator  of the Year for 2011. Buckmire was also recognized by Mathematically Gifted & Black as a Black History Month 2018 Honoree. 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 and one of the top 250 chess players in the United States. Buckmire is married to Dean Elzinga, a former professional opera singer.