Joseph R. Applegate

Joseph Roye Applegate (December 4, 1925 – October 18, 2003) was the first black faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[2] He was a linguistics expert who started working at MIT in 1955 and worked on machine translation. In the 1960s he started working at Howard University and became a professor emeritus of African Studies and it was there that he started the nation's first Ph.D. program in African Studies.[3]

Joseph R. Applegate
Born(1925-12-04)December 4, 1925
Wildwood, New Jersey, US
DiedOctober 18, 2003(2003-10-18) (aged 77)
Washington, D.C., United States
Resting placeGlenwood Cemetery, Washington, D.C., United States [1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma materTemple University
University of Pennsylvania
Scientific career
FieldsLinguistics
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Early life and family

Joseph Applegate was born in Wildwood, New Jersey. His parents operated a boarding house.

Career

Applegate received his master's and PhD in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, after which he began his career at MIT in the Research Laboratory of Electronics in 1955. At the Research Laboratory of Electronics he studied the mechanical translation of languages.[4] In 1959 he became the director of MIT's new language laboratory. At MIT he taught linguistics with such peers as Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle.[4] He left MIT and worked at the University of California in Los Angeles from 1960 to 1966. In 1966 he started working at Howard University and became a professor of African studies in 1969. He was the director of the African Studies and Research Program from 1967 to 1969.[5]

References
  1. "District of Columbia, Glenwood Cemetery Records, 1854-2013". FamilySearch. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  2. "Joseph R. Applegate | Blacks at MIT History Project". blackhistory.mit.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2016-01-29.
  3. "Applegate, Joseph R. (1925-2003) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". www.blackpast.org. Retrieved 2016-01-29.
  4. Bernstein, Adam (2003-10-22). "Professor Joseph Applegate Dies". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  5. Williams, Clarence G. (2001). Technology and the Dream: Reflections on the Black Experience at MIT, 1941–1999. The MIT Press. p. 113. ISBN 9780262232128.


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