[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 15, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   CHANCELLOR STEVE KANG RECOGNITION

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                         HON. DENNIS A. CARDOZA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 15, 2011

  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I stand 
before you today to honor Mr. Sung-Mo ``Steve'' Kang for his many years 
of dedicated service as Chancellor of the University of California, 
Merced, California's first research institution built in the 21st 
century and located within the 18th Congressional District of 
California. Steve Kang was appointed as the second permanent Chancellor 
of UC Merced on January 17, 2007 and began serving at the beginning of 
March of the same year. During his four year tenure as chancellor, 
Steve's leadership made many immense and lasting contributions to the 
university and to the community. It is an honor to recognize the work 
of Chancellor Kang--a tireless advocate for education and research, a 
champion for the community, and a leader and friend to Merced.
  Chancellor Kang's insightful vision for the campus, his commitment to 
cultivating and inspiring students and researchers, and his unyielding 
devotion to his role as chancellor truly paved the way for the 
development of an outstanding university. A sample of UC Merced's key 
accomplishments achieved under Chancellor Kang's leadership include: 
meeting all of the requirements for initial accreditation by the 
Western Association of Schools and Colleges, developing and publishing 
the school's Strategic Academic Vision statement in 2009, continuing 
its commitment to sustainable development by raising the minimum level 
of performance for all new buildings to a Gold LEED rating, and seeing 
the diversity of the campus recognized by the U.S. Department of 
Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Also under his guidance, 
UC Merced's Stem Cell Instrumentation Foundry opened in 2011, enabling 
innovations in biotechnologies that will lead to new discoveries about 
stem cells. A testament to his belief in providing quality and equal 
access education to all students, he secured commitments from the UC 
Office of the President to fund enrollment growth for the next three 
years. Of special note, Chancellor Kang has supported the vision for UC 
Merced's future as a medical teaching university and his actions are 
greatly instrumental in ensuring that it will one day serve as an 
independently accredited School of Medicine.
  Steve's first love is teaching and he has inspired generations of 
successful students inside the classroom. Prior to taking his position 
at UC Merced, he served as a professor in electrical and computer 
engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1985 
to 2000, becoming a department head in 1995. He taught as a visiting 
professor at several international universities, including the Swiss 
Federal Institute of Technology, the University of Lausanne, and the 
Technical University of Munich. He also served as the Dean of the 
Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa 
Cruz, during which time he took a budding engineering program to 
significantly greater levels of achievement, ensuring its place among 
the nation's top engineering schools.
  Steve Kang was raised in South Korea and moved to the United States 
after receiving a scholarship to the Fairleigh Dickinson University in 
Teaneck, New Jersey where he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in 
Electrical Engineering. He received his Masters of Science degree from 
the State University of New York at Buffalo and his doctorate from UC 
Berkeley. A master of his field, Kang has co-authored 11 books on the 
subjects of electrical and computer engineering, written over 350 
technical papers, and has well over a dozen patents to his name. He has 
been recognized with numerous awards in education and research, 
including the Distinguished Korean-American Award in 2008, the IEEE 
Third Millennium Medal in 2000, and Outstanding Alumnus Award in 
Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley in 2008.
  Along with his passion for education, Steve Kang is also an advocate 
for the community. He is personally dedicated to the principle of 
providing educational opportunities to children from lower income 
families and expanding access to a UC-quality education. He serves on 
the UC Merced Foundation as President, the Great Valley Center as 
Chairman of the Board, and the Central Valley Higher Education 
Consortium as an executive board member. He, along with his wife Mia, 
have long carried the torch for the needs of the region, consistently 
looking out for the valley as a whole.
  Mr. Speaker, at this time, I ask that you and my other distinguished 
colleagues join me in commending Chancellor Sung-Mo ``Steve'' Kang for 
his dedication and service as a leader at the University of California, 
Merced. Without his efforts, the university would not be the 
outstanding academic institution that it is today. His selflessness and 
lifelong commitment to education is worthy of the highest praise and it 
is my great privilege to pay tribute to and offer my sincerest 
appreciation to him today. Steve will be leaving UC Merced and 
returning to the classroom and although he will be greatly missed, I 
wholeheartedly wish him luck in every future endeavor. Steve Kang has 
made a lasting impression on the entirety of the Merced community, its 
faculty, and above all, its students. We will forever be indebted to 
his noble efforts in bringing excellence in education to the Central 
Valley.

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