[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 147 (Thursday, November 14, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2037-E2038]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IN MEMORY OF CHANG-LIN TIEN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 14, 2002

  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Chang-Lin Tien for his 
lifetime of distinguished public service. He was a tireless community 
activist and educational leader for more than 40 years. As Chancellor 
of the University of

[[Page E2038]]

California, Berkeley, from 1990-97, Tien was an outspoken supporter of 
equal opportunity in higher education and preserved the campus's 
preeminence despite a prolonged State-wide budget crisis. He died 
Tuesday, October 29th at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Redwood City, 
California.
  Tien was born on July 24, 1935, in Wuhan, China, and educated in 
Shanghai and Taiwan. With his family, he fled China's Communist regime 
for Taiwan in 1949. After completing his undergraduate education at 
National Taiwan University, Tien arrived penniless in the United States 
in 1956 to study at the University of Louisville. Supported by 
scholarships, he earned his master's degree there in 1957 and then a 
second master's degree and his PhD in mechanical engineering at 
Princeton University in 1959.
  He joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1959 as an Assistant Professor 
of mechanical engineering. In 1962, when he was 26 years old, Tien 
became the youngest professor to receive UC Berkeley's Distinguished 
Teaching Award, an award for which he was enduringly proud. Rising 
through the ranks, he became a full professor in 1968, later served as 
chair for seven years of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and, 
for two years, 1983 through 1985, was UC Berkeley's vice chancellor for 
research. In 1988, Tien left UC Berkeley--for his first and only time--
when he was appointed executive vice chancellor at UC Irvine. He 
returned to UC Berkeley as chancellor in 1990.
  One of the most popular and respected leaders in American higher 
education and an engineering scholar of international renown, Tien 
spend nearly his entire professional career at UC Berkeley. He was the 
campus's seventh chancellor and the first Asian American to head a 
major research university in the United States.
  Both in the United States and overseas, Tien's expertise--in thermal 
science and engineering, as an educator and humanitarian--was called 
upon by engineers, scholars and government officials alike. In the 
field of thermal sciences, he was a visionary. Thermal radiation, 
thermal insulation and, most recently, microsale thermal phenomena were 
among the fields carved out by Tien. He also made important 
contributions to fluid flow, phase-change energy transfer, heat pipes, 
reactor safety, cryogenics and fire phenomena. In Japan, his basic 
formulas for ``superinsulation'' are used in the design of magnetic 
levitation trains. Both the United States and Hong Kong governments 
called upon Tien for technical advice. He helped solve problems with 
the Space Shuttle's insulating tiles and with the nuclear reactor 
meltdown at Three Mile Island in the late 1970s.
  A man of great personal integrity and a fighter for justice and equal 
opportunity, Tien said his values and ideals were shaped, in part, by 
the racism and discrimination he encountered in America. To explain his 
support for affirmative action as a tool to level the playing field in 
college admissions, he often told the story, as a new immigrant, he 
confronted a South still divided along color lines.
  ``One day I got on a bus and saw that all the black people were in 
the back, the white people in front. I didn't know where I belonged, so 
for a long time I stood near the driver,'' Tien would recall. 
``Finally, he told me to sit down in the front, and I did. I didn't 
take another bus ride for a whole year. I would walk an hour to avoid 
that.''
  In addition to successfully battling years of devastating state 
budget cuts on campus, Tien developed ways to counter the impact of the 
UC Regents' ban on affirmative action. In 1995, for example, he 
launched the Berkeley Pledge which was a partnership between UC 
Berkeley and California's K-12 public schools that now is called 
School/University Partnerships. Designed to improve the academic 
performance of hundreds of students in the Berkeley, Oakland, West 
Contra Costa and San Francisco unified school districts, the program 
was a model for Education Secretary Riley in creating a national 
program that today is active in almost every state in America.
  As chancellor, Tien was beloved as a champion of students. He was 
famous for his frequent strolls to Sproul Plaza to greet students, 
bringing cookies to those studying late in the library, and yelling a 
heartfelt ``Go, Bears!'' at events. If he returned to UC Berkeley at 
night after a long trip, he'd frequently visit the campus to check in 
with students working in his lab before heading home.
  Tien raised the profile of women in leadership at UC Berkeley by 
appointing the first woman Vice Chancellor and Provost--the second-in-
command on campus--and the first woman Chief of the Campus Police 
Department. He also brought more ethnic diversity to the leadership of 
the university administration.
  During his career, Tien's many honors included, in 1976, becoming one 
of the youngest members of the National Academy of Engineering, which 
awarded its highest honor to him, the NAE Founders Award, in September 
2001. The award recognizes academy members who have made lifelong 
contributions to engineering and whose accomplishments have benefitted 
U.S. citizens.
  Tien held 12 honorary doctorates, including degrees from universities 
in China, Hong Kong and Canada. One unique honor was when the Zi Jin 
Mountain Observatory in China named a newly discovered asteroid 
``Tienchanglin.'' Also bearing his name is one of the world's largest 
oil tankers--Chevron Corp.'s M/T Chang-Lin Tien.
  He authored more than 300 research journal and monograph articles, 16 
edited volumes and one book.
  Chancellor Tien was a friend and supporter. I vividly remember many 
meetings with Chancellor Tien and being in awe of his intellect. Yet, 
his passion and compassion for students and the University of 
California permeated his existence. He was a unique individual, a true 
leader who led from his head to his heart.
  I take great pride in joining Chancellor Tien's wife, children, 
grandchildren, and colleagues to salute the extraordinary Chang-Lin 
Tien.

                          ____________________