[nfbmi-talk] Dr. Abraham Nemeth to receive award

[Fred]

 February 2009
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> CONTACT: Judith Dixon, Chairperson
>
> Braille Authority of North America
>
> PHONE: 1-202-707-0722
>
> E-MAIL:
>
jdix at loc.gov
>
> BANA Creates Braille Excellence Award
>
> In honor of the 200th birthday of Louis Braille, The Braille Authority of
> North America (BANA) has created the Braille Excellence Award. This award
> will be given to people or organizations that have developed or
> contributed
> to a code, have developed code materials, or software that supports codes,
> and/or who represent the highest standards of braille production. The
> first
> award is being given to Dr. Abraham Nemeth for his contributions making
> math
> and science accessible for blind people around the world.
>
> Abraham Nemeth was born completely blind in 1918, in New York City, where
> he
> spent most of his life. Although mathematics instantly became a passion
> for
> Nemeth, he was encouraged by his counselors to pursue a degree in
> psychology
> at Brooklyn College. Following his bachelor's degree, he continued his
> education at Columbia University, where he earned his master's in
> psychology, while attending evening classes in physics and mathematics. As
> the math courses became increasingly more difficult, Nemeth proceeded to
> develop his own system of braille mathematics, adopted in the U.S. in
> 1952,
> named the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation.
> Shortly
> after the development of his code, he joined the Department of Mathematics
> at the University of Detroit, where he created a system of communicating
> mathematical formulas, called MathSpeak. During this time Nemeth received
> a
> Ph.D in mathematics from Wayne State University. Abraham Nemeth's
> contributions have made math and science accessible for blind people
> around
> the world.
>
> The Braille Excellence Award will be presented at the Spring BANA Board
> meeting to be held in conjunction with the California Transcribers and
> Educators of the Visually Handicapped (CTEVH) conference in March, 2009.
> The
> award will be presented at the CTEVH brunch on Sunday, March 15 at 10:00
> a.m.
>
> BANA will meet from March 15-17, 2009 at the San Francisco Airport
> Marriott
> Hotel. This meeting is being hosted by CTEVH, a BANA member organization,
> and overlaps with their annual conference.
>
> The mission and purpose of the Braille Authority of North America are to
> assure literacy for tactile readers through the standardization of braille
> and/or tactile graphics. BANA promotes and facilitates the use, teaching
> and
> production of braille. It publishes rules, interprets and renders opinions
> pertaining to braille in all existing codes. It deals with codes now in
> existence or to be developed in the future, in collaboration with other
> countries using English braille. In exercising its function and authority,
> BANA considers the effects of its decisions on other existing braille
> codes
> and formats; the ease of production by various methods; and acceptability
> to
> readers.
>
> For additional resource information, visit
www.brailleauthority.org.
>