Professor Robert Megginson accepted the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) on May 25. He accepted the award on behalf of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, recognizing MSRI’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts over the last thirty years.

Megginson has played key roles in MSRI's DEI efforts for three decades.  He helped established MSRI's DEI committee, was a founding member and later chair of the committee, and held various leadership roles for the Institute, including as a Trustee as well as a term as Deputy Director in 2002-04 while on leave from U-M. He has been called the "institutional memory" for DEI at MSRI, and as such he authored the successful nomination of MSRI for this award. He does insist that throughout his engagement with the Institute, it has been his joy to have worked with MSRI directors, staff, and other exceptional mathematicians who have instilled a culture of the value of DEI throughout the Institute. He points out that this made it much easier to make the case with the White House and NSF for this recognition.