Affiliation: Lake Forest College
Education: BA, MS, and PhD, mathematics, Northwestern University

DeJuran Richardson is the Ernest H. Volwiler Professor of Mathematics, senior adviser to the president, and immediate past chair of the department of mathematics and computer science at Lake Forest College, which is a national liberal arts college located 15 miles north of Chicago. He also holds adjunct faculty appointments in biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Rush University Medical Center.

I am proudly the byproduct of the blood, sweat, and tears of generations of people who travailed and struggled to broaden opportunities for folks like me.

Richardson was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago and attended Northwestern University, earning bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in mathematics with a concentration in mathematical statistics. He was pursuing a purely mathematical path of study when, midway through graduate school, he was introduced to the biostatistics field by a chance stumble into a conference on sequential methods and testing in clinical trials that happened to be held at Northwestern that year. He says, “The combination of sophisticated mathematics, practical applications, and public health relevance on display was irresistible.”

Richardson’s scientific passion is multifaceted. He loves teaching and mentoring undergraduates using mathematics and statistics as primary tools. He also loves the scientific discovery process, particularly in relation to broadening the ability to acquire, analyze, and effectively interpret salient clinical data. Working collaboratively with health professionals and research investigators engaged in a multi-center clinical trial is particularly fulfilling for him. “I have been blessed to be able to fulfill all these passions concurrently, facilitated by strategic generosity and some innovative thinking embraced by a few excellent academic institutions,” he says. “As a result, I have been able to work with and lead many incredible analysts, scientific investigators, and academics.”

Among Richardson’s proudest moments is when he received his first offer of an assistant professor of biostatistics position. He recalls that when he attended high school, there were many forces—systemic and human—working against people like him even going to college, let alone pursuing the study of mathematics, completing graduate school, completing a postdoctoral fellowship, and becoming a science faculty member at a major college or university.

“I proudly own the fact that I am a product of what turned out to be the last vestiges of the affirmative action era, in which targeted initiatives by government and industry provided opportunities to those—quite capable—who had been systematically and historically shut out,” Richardson says. “I am proudly the byproduct of the blood, sweat, and tears of generations of people who travailed and struggled to broaden opportunities for folks like me. I take pride in that I have not only acquitted myself okay after ‘walking through the doors’ they opened, but also worked very hard to pay it forward by working to widen the way for those coming behind me who still may not see the doors and realize that they, too, can successfully walk through them.”