Asian Americans
David Ho:
1952-present
Groundbreaking AIDS research
Born in Taiwan and moving to the United States at the young age of 12, David Ho showed unusual promise in math and science from a very early age. His poor English skills forced him to take refuge in the things that made him feel comfortable and accepted- these being his studies. All of his hard work paid off in 1973 when he received an acceptance letter from MIT. Ho’s education at MIT led him to obtain an MD from Harvard MIT in Health Science and Technology. During his time here, Ho came into contact with some of the first known cases of AIDS. He dedicated himself to combating the epidemic. Dr. Ho’s research provided that the virus multiplies largely in the beginning, which causes the immune system to exhaust itself fighting the virus. With this information in mind, Ho knew that he must create a ‘cocktail’ that would fight the virus in the first stages of infection. His breakthrough work moved TIME magazine to name him ‘Man of the Year’ in 1996. Today Ho serves as the founding director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York. The focus of his work, however, has moved to preventing HIV from developing into AIDS.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/hoa0bio-1
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/David_Ho_in_lab.JPG
Chien-Shiung Wu:
1912-1997
After arriving in the United States in 1936 with a full education, Chien-Shiung Wu enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley where she studied physics and received her Ph.D. in 1940. Now in her early 30s, her work focused around nuclear fission attracted the attention of the United States government during World War II. She was asked to join the Manhattan Project at Columbia University- the secret name given to the Army’s project to develop the atomic bomb. Wu devoted her time to developing a process to enrich uranium ore to produce large quantities of uranium as fuel for the bomb. After WWII, she worked with several colleagues to overthrow the law of symmetry in physics. This work led both colleagues to be Nobel Prize winners. Despite being the only member of the team not recognized with a Nobel Prize, Wu received many other honors and awards. She was named full professor at Columbia and authored the book Beta Decay in 1965. She was also the first woman elected to the American Physical Society as well as the first woman to receive the Cyrus B Comstock Award of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Wu was also the recipient of the Medal of Science- the nation’s highest scientific award, and became the first ever woman to be awarded an honorary doctorate from Princeton University. After her retirement, Wu continued to lecture widely and encouraged young women in the scientific field. Today she is widely known as the ‘First Lady of Physics’.
https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/chien-shiung-wu https://www.nwhm.org/media/category/education/biography/biographies/C-S_wu.gif
Yuri Kochiyama:
1921-2014
Japanese American Human Rights Activist
An activist, that followed the routes of Malcolm X’s organization, is Yuri Kochiyama. Kochiayma’s family was a family that felt the effects of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066; which basically imprisoned American citizens because of their ethnicity; where her family was moved into a internment camp. After she was released she went on to protest everything from discriminatory hiring practices to helping secure reparations for the interned of World War II, eventually joining Malcolm X’s Afro -American Unity organization. She is considered to be a hero of the civil rights movement.
Julia Chang Bloch:
1942-Present
US-China Education Trust
Julia Chang Bloch was born in 1942 in Chefoo (now Yantai), Shandong Province, China. She moved to the U.S. when she was nine years old and grew up in San Francisco. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley and in 1967, a Master’s degree in Government and East Asia Regional Studies from Harvard University. She also received an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Northeastern University in 1986. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sabah, Malaysia, in 1964, and from 1981 to 1988, she served at the US Agency for International Development as Assistant Administrator for Food for Peace and Voluntary Assistance and as Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Near East. She became Ambassador to the Kingdom of Nepal in 1989, being the first Asian American to reach the rank of Ambassador. She also contributed greatly to corporate and philanthropic sectors in later years. In 1996, she served as President and CEO of the United States-Japan Foundation, a private grant making institution. She is now President of the US-China Education Trust, a non-profit organization working in China to promote US-China relations through education. She also works with Fudan University in Shanghai, China, where is works as Distinguished Adviser of the School of International and Public Affairs and Visiting Professor at the Center for American Studies.
1952-present
Groundbreaking AIDS research
Born in Taiwan and moving to the United States at the young age of 12, David Ho showed unusual promise in math and science from a very early age. His poor English skills forced him to take refuge in the things that made him feel comfortable and accepted- these being his studies. All of his hard work paid off in 1973 when he received an acceptance letter from MIT. Ho’s education at MIT led him to obtain an MD from Harvard MIT in Health Science and Technology. During his time here, Ho came into contact with some of the first known cases of AIDS. He dedicated himself to combating the epidemic. Dr. Ho’s research provided that the virus multiplies largely in the beginning, which causes the immune system to exhaust itself fighting the virus. With this information in mind, Ho knew that he must create a ‘cocktail’ that would fight the virus in the first stages of infection. His breakthrough work moved TIME magazine to name him ‘Man of the Year’ in 1996. Today Ho serves as the founding director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York. The focus of his work, however, has moved to preventing HIV from developing into AIDS.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/hoa0bio-1
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/David_Ho_in_lab.JPG
Chien-Shiung Wu:
1912-1997
After arriving in the United States in 1936 with a full education, Chien-Shiung Wu enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley where she studied physics and received her Ph.D. in 1940. Now in her early 30s, her work focused around nuclear fission attracted the attention of the United States government during World War II. She was asked to join the Manhattan Project at Columbia University- the secret name given to the Army’s project to develop the atomic bomb. Wu devoted her time to developing a process to enrich uranium ore to produce large quantities of uranium as fuel for the bomb. After WWII, she worked with several colleagues to overthrow the law of symmetry in physics. This work led both colleagues to be Nobel Prize winners. Despite being the only member of the team not recognized with a Nobel Prize, Wu received many other honors and awards. She was named full professor at Columbia and authored the book Beta Decay in 1965. She was also the first woman elected to the American Physical Society as well as the first woman to receive the Cyrus B Comstock Award of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Wu was also the recipient of the Medal of Science- the nation’s highest scientific award, and became the first ever woman to be awarded an honorary doctorate from Princeton University. After her retirement, Wu continued to lecture widely and encouraged young women in the scientific field. Today she is widely known as the ‘First Lady of Physics’.
https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/chien-shiung-wu https://www.nwhm.org/media/category/education/biography/biographies/C-S_wu.gif
Yuri Kochiyama:
1921-2014
Japanese American Human Rights Activist
An activist, that followed the routes of Malcolm X’s organization, is Yuri Kochiyama. Kochiayma’s family was a family that felt the effects of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066; which basically imprisoned American citizens because of their ethnicity; where her family was moved into a internment camp. After she was released she went on to protest everything from discriminatory hiring practices to helping secure reparations for the interned of World War II, eventually joining Malcolm X’s Afro -American Unity organization. She is considered to be a hero of the civil rights movement.
Julia Chang Bloch:
1942-Present
US-China Education Trust
Julia Chang Bloch was born in 1942 in Chefoo (now Yantai), Shandong Province, China. She moved to the U.S. when she was nine years old and grew up in San Francisco. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley and in 1967, a Master’s degree in Government and East Asia Regional Studies from Harvard University. She also received an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Northeastern University in 1986. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sabah, Malaysia, in 1964, and from 1981 to 1988, she served at the US Agency for International Development as Assistant Administrator for Food for Peace and Voluntary Assistance and as Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Near East. She became Ambassador to the Kingdom of Nepal in 1989, being the first Asian American to reach the rank of Ambassador. She also contributed greatly to corporate and philanthropic sectors in later years. In 1996, she served as President and CEO of the United States-Japan Foundation, a private grant making institution. She is now President of the US-China Education Trust, a non-profit organization working in China to promote US-China relations through education. She also works with Fudan University in Shanghai, China, where is works as Distinguished Adviser of the School of International and Public Affairs and Visiting Professor at the Center for American Studies.