Juan Meza is a professor at UC Merced and the recipient of the 2022 Richard A. Tapia Award. As a researcher, Meza looks at the foundational math underlying real-world science problems to understand and predict how things behave.

He has served on numerous federal advisory committees and was named an Association for Computing Machinery Distinguished Speaker in 2011. Throughout his career, Meza has contributed significantly to the community as a mentor and leader in applied mathematics.