Bridgewater College
Famous Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders Heritage People
AANHPI have contributed a great deal to the history and achievements in United States of America. In this digest we will focus on a few famous AANHPI people.
Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) A Chinese American physicist, Wu was born in a small town near Shanghai and went on to study physics at the University of Shanghai. She came to America in 1936 to pursue advanced education and completed her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1940. Wu joined the Manhattan Project at Columbia University in 1944. Wu is well- known for having won several awards and for having made significant contributions to the field of nuclear and particle physics throughout her career. She is credited to have been the first physicist who confirmed Enrico Fermi’s theory of beta decay. Her research is also known to have helped clarify confusion regarding sickle cell disease. Wu is also referred to as the “First Lady of Physics” and the “Queen of Nuclear Research”.
George Takei (born: 1937) A Japanese American actor and activist, George Takei was born to Japanese-American immigrants. Between the ages of 5 to 9, Takei was imprisoned in one of the Japanese internment camps. He has vowed never to allow that history to be forgotten, lest is be repeated. Takei is a prominent LGBTQI+ rights activist. He came out as gay in 2005. Takei became famous when he took on the role of Sulu in Gene Roden berry’s Star Trek television series in 1965. At that time, Takei was a one of the few Asian Americans who was prominently featured in a tele vision series. Since then, he has appeared in many different roles. For his humanitarian and activist work, Takei has won several awards and accolades.
Ajay Bhatt (born: 1957) Born in India, Ajay Bhatt is an Indian-born American computer architect who has developed several technologies that are widely used today. Bhatt attended Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda. He came to America to pursue a graduate degree and to that end he completed a master’s from the City University of New York. He has since worked with Intel. Bhatt is famous for developing and defining PCI Express, AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port), and is most well-known for having invented the USB (Universal Serial Bus). Today Bhatt holds 132 international and U.S. patents with more in filing status at the moment.
4 | DEI Digest
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