| Chang-Lin
Tien, the seventh chancellor of the University
of California, Berkeley, was born on July 24, 1935, in Wuhan,
China. In 1949, he and his family fled China's Communist regime
for Taiwan. With an undergraduate degree from Nation Taiwan
University, Tien arrived in the United States in 1956 to study
at the University of Louisville. He earned his master's degree
there in 1957 and then a second master's degree and his Ph.D.
in mechanical engineering at Princeton University in 1959.
Later in 1959, he became an assistant professor of mechanical
engineering at UC Berkeley, where he would be a faculty
member for 42 years. In 1962, at age 26, he became the youngest
professor to receive the campus's Distinguished Teaching
Award. He rose to full professor in 1968, later served as
chair for seven years of the Department of Mechanical Engineering
and, for two years, 1983 to 1985, was UC Berkeley's vice
chancellor for research. In 1988, Tien left campus to be
UC Irvine's executive vice chancellor. He returned to UC
Berkeley in 1990 as chancellor and as the first Asian American
to head a major research university in the United States.
Tien was a scientific consultant to many organizations,
research laboratories, and private companies. He served
on the boards of Chevron, Kaiser Permanente, Wells Fargo
Bank, the San Francisco Symphony, Princeton University,
and the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Vimicro Corporation,
a Chinese High-Tech start-up in Zhongguangcun, Beijing.
On Oct. 29, Tien died at the age of 67 at Kaiser Permanente
hospital in Redwood City. He had been diagnosed with a brain
tumor in September 2001. He is survived by his wife, Di-Hwa;
Son, Norman; daughters, Phyllis and Christine; and four
grandchildren.
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