SHOW SUPPORT
Contributions
Achievements & Contributions
Chinese Americans are one of the largest and most diverse ethnic groups in the United States and have made significant contributions to various fields of American society, such as science, technology, business, economy, arts, literature, music, architecture, entertainment, sports, education, public services, civil rights and social movements. .
Here we are sharing only a few individual recognitions just for now, please check back with us for more or send us your stories if you wish to acknowledge yourself or someone you know.
Grace Lee Boggs 陈玉平
Grace was a prominent activist, writer, and philosopher who dedicated her life to various social justice movements in the United States. She was born in June 27,1915 to Chinese immigrants in Rhode Island above her father’s restaurant, bove and graduated from Barnard College and Bryn Mawr College with degrees in philosophy. She moved to Detroit in 1953 and married James Boggs, a Black auto worker and activist. Together, they founded several organizations and publications that advocated for civil rights, labor, feminism, environmentalism, and community empowerment. Grace Lee Boggs collaborated with influential figures like C. L. R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.
She was such a noted figure in Detroit’s black community that people assumed she “probably Afro Chinese.”
She also wrote several books, including an autobiography and The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century. She died in 2015 at the age of 100, leaving behind a legacy of radical thought and action.
David Ho 何大卫
is a renowned AIDS researcher who has made groundbreaking contributions to the understanding and treatment of HIV infection. He is the founding scientific director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and a professor of medicine at Columbia University.
Ho was born in Taiwan in 1952 and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 12 years old. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in biology and from Harvard Medical School with a medical degree. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at UCLA and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Ho became interested in AIDS research in the early 1980s, when he encountered some of the first cases of the mysterious disease that was later identified as AIDS. He began to study the virology and pathogenesis of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and discovered how HIV replicates and mutates rapidly in the body, making it difficult to treat with single drugs.
In the mid-1990s, Ho and his colleagues developed the concept of combination antiretroviral therapy, which involves using a cocktail of drugs that target different stages of the HIV life cycle. This approach dramatically reduced the viral load and improved the survival and quality of life of people living with HIV. Ho’s work transformed AIDS from a fatal disease into a manageable chronic condition.
Ho has received numerous awards and honors for his scientific achievements, including the Time Magazine Person of the Year in 1996, the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001, and the National Medal of Science in 2000. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ho continues to conduct research on HIV/AIDS, as well as other emerging infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. He is also involved in global health initiatives to improve access to HIV prevention and treatment in developing countries.
Dr. Steven Chu 朱棣文
Dr. Chu is a Nobel laureate in physics and a former U.S. Secretary of Energy. He is currently a professor of physics and molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University. In this blog post, I will share some of his insights on the challenges and opportunities of clean energy and climate change.
Dr. Chu believes that we need to act urgently and decisively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to a low-carbon economy. He says that the scientific evidence is clear and overwhelming, and that the consequences of inaction are dire. He also points out that there are many co-benefits of clean energy, such as improved air quality, public health, national security, and economic competitiveness.
Dr. Chu advocates for a comprehensive approach that includes increasing energy efficiency, deploying renewable energy sources, developing carbon capture and storage technologies, and promoting innovation and research. He also emphasizes the importance of international cooperation and leadership, especially from major emitters like China and the U.S. He says that we need to work together to create a global market for clean energy that can drive down costs and spur innovation.
Dr. Chu is optimistic that we can overcome the challenges of clean energy and climate change if we harness our scientific knowledge, technological capabilities, and political will. He says that we have the moral responsibility and the economic opportunity to do so. He urges us to act with courage and conviction, and to inspire others to join us in this noble cause.
Chien-Shiung Wu 吴健雄
Chien-Shiung Wu was a pioneering physicist who made groundbreaking discoveries in atomic science and nuclear physics. She was born in China and came to the US in 1936 to pursue her doctoral degree at the University of California, Berkeley. She later joined the Manhattan Project, where she improved the methods for enriching uranium and detecting radiation. She also conducted a famous experiment that disproved the principle of parity conservation, which earned her colleagues Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957. Wu was the first woman to receive the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978, and was also awarded the National Medal of Science and the Comstock Prize.
Samuel C.C. Ting 丁肇中
Samuel C.C. Ting is a Nobel laureate physicist who specializes in particle physics and astrophysics. He was born in China and moved to the US in 1956 to study at the University of Michigan. He became a professor at MIT in 1969 and has been leading several international collaborations to explore the fundamental nature of matter and energy. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976 for his discovery of a new subatomic particle called J/psi meson, which confirmed the existence of charm quarks. He is currently the principal investigator of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a cosmic ray detector installed on the International Space Station.
Maya Lin
Maya Lin is a renowned architect and artist who is best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., when she was only 21 years old. She was born in Ohio to Chinese immigrants and studied architecture at Yale University. She won a national competition to design a memorial for the fallen soldiers of the Vietnam War, which sparked controversy for its minimalist and abstract style. The memorial, however, became one of the most visited and revered monuments in the US, as well as a symbol of healing and reconciliation. Lin has also created other public artworks that reflect her interest in nature, history, and culture, such as the Civil Rights Memorial in Alabama and The Wave Field in Michigan.