【金子凼】In Memory of Professor Chiu

Chinese Version
08-03-2021, Tuesday, Cloudy

“Ying-Nan Chiu(11-25-1933 to 07-18-2009), was a world-famous physical chemist. He taught at the Catholic University of America since 1964, serving as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, and as Professor Emeritus. He received Fellow of the American Physical Society, U.S.A.(1986) and Academician of Academia Sinica, R.O.C.(1986), among others.”

In mid July, Ru, one of my CUA alumina in Maryland, sent me a photo and told me, “I saw it while walking in the park today. Do you remember Prof. Chiu?”

Seeing the inscription on the photo: “丘應楠 in loving memory of Ying Nan Chiu 1932 – 2009″, I immediately replied, “Of course I remember him. I was planning to write a story about our beloved Prof. Chiu too. Thanks for sharing! ”

In my memories, Prof. Chiu is always happy, humble and scholarly. Ru also said: “Prof. Chiu is very kind and patient to students, and he is a very modest gentleman. He is a good role model for us to follow. ”

I once took Prof. Chiu’s course “Carbon structure and superconductive principle”. I liked his devoted and interesting teaching style very much. This course allowed me to see the geometric perfection of the micro world. At that time, he really helped me understand the principle of superconductivity (although I may have forgotten it by now). However, I still remember clearly that comparing with the thick 19 in × 24 in (48.3 cm × 61.0 cm) college textbook I used in the United States, Prof. Chiu’s textbook is not thick but small (about 5 in × 8 in (13 cm × 20 cm)). Just like other textbooks I used, this book also costed more than 60 dollars, which was my monthly food expenses.

I felt that Prof. Chiu had taken extra steps to promote the public image of Chinese. I remember that around 1992, Yaxiong’s daughter in middle school received the Presidential Award. Prof. Chiu posted the news in the corridor near the entrance on the first floor of the chemistry department, so that everyone in the department could see the good news and be proud of Yaxiong’s daughter.

I also worked with Kang, Prof. Chiu’s youngest son who just graduated from college, in the VSL laboratory; He was in charge of the regulations related to radioactivity. I worked in the chemical laboratory. Sometimes we met in the lunch room during lunch time.

After seeing my lunch many times, Kang once commented: “Your lunch is very greasy.”

I often ate my homemade lunch like this, so I asked him, “Isn’t it good to have oil in food?”

He frowned: “If it’s too greasy, it is unhealthy.”

His answer made me feel that he was very considerate and honest and that Prof. Chiu’s family paid good attention to healthy diet. In short, I respect Prof. Chiu very much.

I think Prof. Chiu’s greatest influence on me is after I graduated with my doctorate.

One day, Prof. Chiu came to me and said, “Your advisor, Prof. Barkatt, is applying for a tenured professor position and needs several letters of recommendation from his previous graduate students. Will you write a letter of recommendation for Professor Barkatt? ”

I had never written a letter of recommendation in English, so I was worried and refused: “My English is not good, and there will definitely be mistakes in my writing which won’t help Professor Barkatt. So I won’t write.”

Prof. Chiu thought for a moment and said seriously, “English is not your mother tongue, but if you write carefully with your own thoughts, readers will read your true feelings even with some wrong words.”

So I wrote my first English recommendation letter and recommended my advisor as a tenured professor.

Even now I still believe that “if you write carefully with your own thoughts, readers will read your true feelings even with some wrong words.” Because I trust Prof. Chiu very much.

Prof. Chiu’s words are one of the driving forces of my continuing to write Chinese stories in my mother tongue now.

Little Episodes

1. The inscription in the park in Maryland(Photo by Ru):
2009丘先生碑文

2. Photo about Prof. Chiu I found online:“1985年化學所召開第一次諮詢委員會,出席人員(從左至右)為彭旭明所長、丘應楠院士、吳大猷院長、李遠哲院士、劉兆玄教授、張啟光教授(被遮擋)、及前所長林渭川教授。”
1985丘先生

3. Prof. Chiu and I on my master graduation (1992).
1992丘先生

4. Greek classmate,Prof. Chiu, and I who just finished my Ph.D. oral defense(1994).
1994丘先生

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