2020-2021 Honorary Advisory Board:
Xuemei Chen graduated with her B.S. degree from Peking University in 1988, and was selected to participate in the CUSBEA (China-US Biology Examinations and Admissions) program that provided opportunities for Chinese students to pursue Ph.D. studies in US institutions. She received a doctorate from Cornell University in 1995. After postdoctoral training from 1995 to 1998 at California Institute of Technology, she started her assistant professor position in 1999 at the Waksman Institute at Rutgers University. She was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and won the Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence at Rutgers University. She moved to University of California, Riverside in 2005 as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 2009 and distinguished professor in 2013. In 2006, she received the prestigious Charles Albert Shull award from American Society of Plant Biologists. In 2011, she was elected an AAAS Fellow. She was an HHMI-GBMF investigator from 2012 to 2017. In 2013, she was elected into the US National Academy of Sciences. Her work has focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying the biogenesis, degradation, and modes of action of microRNAs in plants.
Shirley Ho graduated from National Taiwan University majoring in Economics and received her master’s degree in Management Science from the Johns Hopkins University. Specializing in system design, Mrs. Ho was previously a Computing Specialist in Hughes Aircraft, Northrop, and Toyota Motor Sales, USA.
Since joining CESASC, Ms. Ho has chaired the Topical Meeting Committee (1997), as well as the Public Relations Committee (2002 & 2003). She was the Convention Chair in 2004, and was elected as the President and the Chairwoman of the Board in 2005 and 2006. Ms. Ho took the Presidency of CESASC at a transitional time. However, she was able to significantly strengthen CESASC’s financial status so that many more community activities could be held. She was one of the initiators to start a Student and Postdoctoral Research Poster Session and a Silent Auction/Fundraising program. In recognition of her outstanding achievements in service to CESASC and local communities, Ms. Ho received the CESASC Service Award in 2008. Through her leadership and outreach ability, she has been a bridge between CESASC and other community associations.
Having been a Trustee of the Peninsula Education Foundation, and a recipient of four Honorary Service Awards from the PVP Council of PTAs, Mrs. Ho was recruited by Torrance Memorial Medical Center to lead the Chinese Community Healthcare & Outreach programs in 1994. As a member of Human Relations Forum of Torrance, she has helped facilitate The Visions of Unity Arts Contest since 2000. Mrs. Ho served as the President of the South Bay Evergreen Seniors Association, 2014-2018. Presently, she is the President-Elect of UCLA Faculty Women’s Club (FWC), and a member of FWC Scholarship Committee. Aside from community leadership, Ms. Ho has given six successful vocal recitals over the years, including four benefit concerts which raised substantial funds for several mainstream organizations.
Dr. Kao has more than four decades of experiences in performing and directing R&D programs in various US industries including automotive, consumer, aerospace, Federal Funded R&D Center, and universities. His areas of expertise include composites, nanotechnology, passive electronic components, cryogenic and high temp materials, and advanced manufacturing. He is a founding member of the UCLA Institute for Technology Advancement of the UCLA School of Engineering, where he serves as the Associate Director. At that position, he has obtained funding and conducted research projects and established collaborations between US and foreign R&D institutions, as well as developing strategies for VC and entrepreneurs for commercialization of UCLA inventions. He has established the Suzhou-UCLA Institute for Technology Advancement in 2012 in Suzhou China and served as the Deputy Director of the Institute. Before he joined UCLA, he was the Director of Materials Science Department at the US Air Force space technology think tank, The Aerospace Corporation, where he served as the Director of the Materials Science Department, directing advanced R&D programs to support DoD and NRO satellite and launch vehicle classified programs. He has led advanced research programs funded by State and National Agencies (Air Force Space Command, AFRL, NASA, AFOSR, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Army, NSF, NIST, OSHA, California State, NRO, DoE) on advanced technology development. He was also a crime investigation specialist designated by the National Law Enforcement Technology Center for the Department of Justice. Dr. Kao has been the Chairman of the annual Manufacturing Problem Prevention Conference (MP3) sponsored by US Air Force Space Command for a decade.
Dr. Kao has taught at the California State University and has served in various US Tri-Service investigation committees, AIAA Materials Technical Committee, and as General Chairman of international conferences and session chairs for various national conferences, including AIAA, ASM and SAMPE. He is an Associate Fellow of AIAA. Dr. Kao obtained his B.S. at the National Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan, M.S. at University of Notre Dame and Ph.D. at Michigan State University, all in Materials Science. Dr. Kao was the President of CESASC in 1989.
Dr. Dankai Liu is an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology. Currently, he serves as Project System Engineer for the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission. The NISAR mission is a joint project between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) to co-develop and launch a synthetic aperture radar satellite to better understand natural processes of the Earth. Dankai has held numerous critical positions for JPL’s space exploration projects, including Project System Engineer and Chief Engineer for Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) which was NASA's first mission dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements by the space technology, Chief Engineer of Aquarius mission which measured the sea surface salinity from space, Instrument Manager for Space Interferometry Mission, Deputy Flight System Manager and Deputy Chief engineer for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), Flight System Manager for Mars Telecom Orbiter, Assistant Division Manager for Flight Projects of the Avionic Systems and Technology Division, Flight System Manager for the GALEX (Galaxy Evolution Explorer) Project, Avionics Manager for Deep Space One Mission of New Millennium Program, which was designed to flight-validate key technologies that bring significant benefits to future science missions, and the Attitude Control System Lead for the Mars Pathfinder Mission. Among the numerous distinguished recognitions and awards presented to Dankai are The Engineer’s Council Outstanding Engineering Achievement Merit Award, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, JPL Leadership and Technical Excellence Awards, Distinguished Alumni Awards from Tatung University and Texas Tech University, and the Distinguished Immigrant Building America Award from the American Institute in Taiwan.
Dr. S. Joe Qin obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Automatic Control from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, in 1984 and 1987, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Maryland at College Park in 1992. He is Director of the Center for Machine and Process Intelligence and Professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering of the University of Southern California and Guest Chair Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, where he served as the inaugural vice president for external and student affairs. He is the President and Chair of the North American Federation of Tsinghua University Alumni Associations and the Founding President of the Tsinghua Alumni Academia Club.
Dr. Qin is a Fellow of AIChE, Fellow of IEEE, and Fellow of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2011 Northrop Grumman Best Teaching award at Viterbi School of Engineering, the DuPont Young Professor Award, Halliburton/Brown & Root Young Faculty Excellence Award, NSF-China Outstanding Young Investigator Award, Chang Jiang Professor of Tsinghua University, and recipient of the IFAC Best Paper Prize for a model predictive control survey paper published in Control Engineering Practice. He is currently a Senior Editor for Journal of Process Control and a Member of the Editorial Board for Journal of Chemometrics. He has published over 140 papers in SCI journals or book chapters. He has over 10,900 Web of Science citations with an associated h-index of 50 and over 30,000 Google Scholar citations. He delivered over 40 invited plenary or keynote speeches and over 100 invited technical seminars worldwide.
Dr. Yue Rong (aka, YR) is currently the Environmental Program Manager at the California Environmental Protection Agency, Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. He used to be the acting Assistant Executive Officer of the Water Board, in groundwater division. Dr. Rong is the manager in charge of site assessment and remediation of leaking underground storage tank sites, and the program of water quality control in oil and gas production fields. He has 29-year experience with the Agency in dealing with groundwater contamination problems in the Los Angeles area of California, U.S.A. His expertise includes organic pollutants fate and transport in the subsurface soil and groundwater, environmental analytical chemistry and quality assurance and quality control, environmental statistics, risk assessment, and soil and groundwater pollution assessment and remediation. The projects he worked and involved with include collaboration with USEPA at superfund sites, Santa Monica methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) drinking water pollution cleanup, I-710 corridor regional cleanup, and water quality control at oil and gas production fields in Los Angeles area.
Dr. Rong was the recipient of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board Outstanding Achievement Award and Supervisory Performance Award. He also received 2011 AEHS Foundation Achievement Award. He is an Associate Editor for the peer-reviewed journal of Soil and Sediment Contamination and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Environmental Forensics. Dr. Rong is the author or co-authors for about 30 peer-reviewed publications, and editor of the book entitled “Practical Environmental Statistics and Data Analysis.” Dr. Rong is the editor of the book entitled “Fundamentals of Environmental Site Assessment and Remediation”, published in July 2018. Dr. Rong served as chairman for the UCLA Alumni Association Outstanding Graduate Student Nominating Committee in 2004. Dr. Rong was elected in 2006 and re-elected in 2008 as the president of the Southern California Chinese American Environmental Protection Association (SCCAEPA), serving the local minority community. He is also the Editor-in-Chief for the peer-reviewed SCCAEPA Online Journal. Dr. Yue Rong has his Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and M.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and received his B.S. in Earth Science from Beijing Normal University.
Dr. Jason Wen is currently the Director of Department of Water Resources in City of Lakewood. Previously he was Utilities Superintendent in City of Downey, Water Quality and Environmental Engineer at So. California Water Company, and Project Engineer at California Department of Health Services, Drinking Water Program, and Environmental Consultant at HydroSearch, Inc. Dr. Wen is an expert in Water Resources Management, Water Treatment, and Environmental Management. He has participated in several water research projects and served as projector advisor in arsenic, iron and manganese treatment technologies. He is Board Member of Central Basin Water Rights Panel, Board Member of Central Water Basin Water Association, Vice Chair of Technical Advisory Committee of Water Replenishment District of Southern California.
Dr. Wen has been actively involved in the community services. He is serving as Chair of US Organization Committee of Sino-American Technology and Engineering Conference (SATEC). He was National Council Chair (2014-15), Chinese Institute of Engineers/ USA, President (2014), Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association (CIE-OCEESA ), Chairman of Board (2012-13) and President (2011-12) of Chinese-American Engineers and Scientists Association of Southern California (CESASC), President (2004-2005) of Southern California Chinese-American Environmental Protection Association (SCCAEPA), and Founding President of Caltech C.
Dr. Wen received his B.S. in Geochemistry from University of Science and Technology of China, M.S. in Geochemistry from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of California, San Diego. He is also licensed P.E. in California, and hold the highest level of operator certificates (Grade 5) in both Water Treatment and Water Distribution in California.
Liping Yan graduated from the Southwest Jiaotong University with a B.Eng. degree in Railway Bridge Engineering (1983) and an M.Eng. degree in Foundation Engineering (1986). In September 1986, he came to the United States to pursue further study. He obtained an MS degree and an Eng.D. from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.
Dr. Yan’s expertise is in Geotechnical and Earthquake Engineering. He authored or co-authored more than 50 papers. He served as a member of Academic Committee or a co-chair of Organizing Committee for several international conferences. He is a vice president of International Association of Chinese Geotechnical Engineers, a member of Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics Committee, Geo-Institute, ASCE, and an invited editor for the Journal of Chongqing Jiaotong University (Natural Sciences Edition). He is a reviewer for a number of academic journals. In 2008 and 2017, he was honored as a Gust Professor for the Southwest Jiaotong University and the Guangzhou Railway Professional Technical College, respectively.
From 1990 to 2008, he had worked for consulting companies with various capacities including Principal Engineer and Vice President. Presently, Dr. Yan is a Technical Specialist at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). He has managed or participated in many projects, some of which won awards from government agencies or professional organizations.
Dr. Yan is enthusiastic about community services and actively participates in public welfare or STEM activities. He served as President of Caltech C, President of Chiao Tung/Jiaotong University Alumni Association in Southern California, President of Chinese-American Engineers and Scientists Association of Southern California, Chief Editor of several publications such as Sea Breeze (《海風》) and Overseas Hunanese Voice (《海外湘音》).
In October 2015, he received the Branch Service Award from the Chiao Tung University Alumni Association in America. In November 2017, he was honored with the title of the Outstanding Corporate Professional by the Chinese University Alumni Association Alliance of Southern California.
Dr. Henry Tzu-Yow Yang is an engineer and educator currently serving as the chancellor of the University of California, Santa Barbara, a post he has held since 1994. He is regarded as an expert in aerospace structures, structural dynamics, transonic aeroelasticity, wind and earthquake structural engineering, intelligent manufacturing systems, and finite elements. Before he joined UC Santa Barbara, Dr. Yang was on the faculty at Purdue University. He was named the university's Neil A. Armstrong Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics from 1988 through 1994, and served as dean of engineering for 10 years. He is an eight-time winner of the Elmer F. Bruhn Award and three-time winner of the A.A. Potter Award, which honor outstanding teachers at the Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and College of Engineering, respectively. He has authored or co-authored more than 180 articles for scientific journals, as well as a widely used textbook on finite element structural analysis. He has guided 58 Ph.D. students and 21 M.S. recipients. Dr. Yang has served on scientific advisory boards for the Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, NASA, and the National Academy of Engineering. He is a past chair of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (2010–2014) and the Association of American Universities (2009–2010). Yang served on the President's Committee for the National Medal of Science, appointed originally by George W. Bush in 2009 and again by Barack Obama in 2011. He was named as chairman of the board for the Thirty Meter Telescope project in 2007 and still holds the position. He also currently serves on the board of directors of The Kavli Foundation. Yang holds honorary doctorates from Purdue University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, City University of Hong Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong, West Virginia University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and University of Macau. He is the 1998 recipient of the Benjamin Garver Lamme Award from the American Society for Engineering Education; the 2008 recipient of the Structures, Structural Dynamics, & Materials Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and the 2016 recipient of the Arthur M. Bueche Award from the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
Professor Yang YANG holds a BS in Physics from the National Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan in 1982, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics and Applied Physics from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell in 1988 and 1992, respectively. Professor Yang is the Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas Jr. Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at UCLA. He is a materials physicist with expertise in the fields of organic electronics, organic/inorganic interface engineering, and the development and fabrication of related devices, such as photovoltaic cells, LEDs, and memory devices. His notable contributions to the field of organic photovoltaics (OPV) are enhanced understanding of polymer morphology and its influence on device performance; the invention of the inverted organic solar cell; the inverted tandem solar cell; and transparent OPV devices. Professor Yang has as published over 300 peer- reviewed papers (including book chapters); ~60 patents (filed or issued), and given 150 invited talks. His H-Index is 141 as of August 2018. Some of his recent honors and awards are: “World's most influential scientific minds” by Thomason Reuters, 2016. (Only 19 scientists worldwide selected.); Second highest cited papers in Chemistry between 2005 - 2015, selected by the American Chemical Society (ACS); Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science and Chemistry Categories (2016, 2015, 2014) published by Thomason Reuters; Fellows of American Physical Society (2015); Materials Research Society (2015); Royal Society of Chemistry (2015); SPIE & (2014).