The College World Reporter

OUTSTANDING ASIAN AMERICANS AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS

Angela Perez Baraquio, made history as the first Asian-American and teacher ever to be crowned Miss America in the prestigious Scholarship Program's 80-year existence.  As Miss America 2001, Angela traveled more than 20,000 miles a month on a national speaking tour promoting "Character in the Classroom: Teaching Values, Valuing Teachers." Angela's message of hope and inspiration reached wider audiences through media campaigns such as USA Today's "Make A Difference Day," and the "5 Minutes with Miss America Tour."

Source:  Amgela Perez Baraquio Official website

Author of In Defense of Globalization and professor of economics at Columbia University.  Known for his advocacy of free trade.  Bhagwati has previously served as an external advisor to the Director General of the World Trade Organization in 2001, as a special policy advisor on globalization to the United Nations in 2000, and as an economics policy advisor to the Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade from 1991 to 1993.

She is the first Indian-American gymnast, and the second Indian-American athlete overall, ever to win a medal at the Olympics.  She was the silver medalist for the U.S. team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.  Mohini has represented the USA in two World Championships and competed in the apparatus final on vault twice. Her background is multicultural while her father is Indian native and her mother Russian.

One of the co-founders of Hotmail; He later sold it to Microsoft for $400 million. Named by TIME as one of the "People to Watch" in International Business (2002).  Mr. Bhatia has won several honors and awards. These include: "Entrepreneur of the Year," award by the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (1997); and "TR100" award, presented by MIT to 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology in the next few years.

Served as the fifth Governor of the State of Hawaii from 1994 to 2002. He is the first Filipino American to serve as a state governor in the United States.  Throughout his tenure in office, Cayetano had to contend with economic uncertainty and serious fiscal problems. Declining tax revenues led to budget shortfalls that had to be addressed. Cayetano gets most of the credit for passing large cuts in the state income tax to stimulate the state's economy.

American astrophysicist of Indian descent.  1983 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics for his studies on the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars. From 1952 to 1971 Chandrasekhar was editor of the Astrophysical Journal. Chandrasekhar served on the University of Chicago faculty from 1937 until his death in 1995 at the age of 84. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1953.

Admiral Chang served in the U.S. Navy for 34 years before retiring in 1990. He became the first Asian American naval officer to reach flag rank. He held a variety of cruiser and destroyer commands before becoming Department of the Navy Inspector General in 1987. After leaving the navy, Chang became vice president and corporate director for the Pacific region at Raytheon International and then president of MEC International, LLC.

Source:  Infoplease.com

 Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ph.D.

Former astronaut of Chinese and South American descent. veteran of 7 space flights, including 3 spacewalks, and shares the record for the most spaceflights with Jerry L. Ross. He performed three Extra-vehicular activities as part of the construction of the International Space Station. He was also director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center from 1993 to 2005. Dr. Chang-Diaz retired from NASA in 2005.

Source:  NASA

24th U.S. Secretary of Labor.  The first Chinese American and the first Asian American woman to be appointed to a President's Cabinet in American history.  Only member of President Bush's cabinet to serve a full 8 years.

Kalpana Chawla, Ph.D.

American Astronaut of Indian descent.  First Indian American woman in space.  In 1988, Kalpana Chawla started work at NASA Ames Research Center in the area of powered-lift computational fluid dynamics. Her research concentrated on simulation of complex air flows encountered around aircraft such as the Harrier in "ground-effect." In 1993 Dr. Chawla joined Overset Methods Inc., Los Altos, California, as Vice President and Research Scientist to form a team with other researchers specializing in simulation of moving multiple body problems. She was responsible for development and implementation of efficient techniques to perform aerodynamic optimization. Results of various projects that Dr. Chawla participated in are documented in technical conference papers and journals. She was a crew member of the Space Shuttle Columbia  and was killed when Columbia exploded upon reentry to Earth's atmosphere in February 2003.

Source:  NASA

Leroy Chiao, Ph.D.

Former astronaut.  Veteran of four space flights. Qualified for assignment as Space Station Commander, Space Station Science Officer, and Space Shuttle Mission Specialist. Commander of Expedition 10 where he lived on board the International Space Station.

Source:  NASA

 Steven Chu, Ph.D.

U.S. Secretary of Energy and  co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics (1997).  Known for his research in cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light. Dr. Chu has devoted his recent scientific career to the search for new solutions to our energy challenges and stopping global climate change - a mission he continues with even greater urgency as Secretary of Energy. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Chu was director of DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and professor of Physics and Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California.   He successfully applied the techniques he developed in atomic physics to molecular biology, and since 2004, motivated by his deep interest in climate change, he has recently led the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in pursuit of new alternative and renewable energies.

American politician and consultant who from 2001 to 2008, served as Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in the George W. Bush administration. He is currently President and CEO of the non-profit Institute for Defense Analyses. From 1978 to 1981, Dr. Chu served as the Assistant Director for National Security and International Affairs, Congressional Budget Office, providing advice to the Congress on the full range of national security and international economic issues. He served the Director and then Assistant Secretary of Defense (Program Analysis and Evaluation) from May 1981 to January 1993. In that capacity, he advised the Secretary of Defense on the future size and structure of the armed forces, their equipment, and their preparation for crisis or conflict.

Source:  U. S. Department of Defense

Connie Chung

Network news anchor and talk show host.  During the height of her career, she was considered to be among the leading female journalists on television, along with Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, and Jane Pauley.

 Ann Curry

News anchor of NBC's Today and the anchor of Dateline NBC.  Curry has earned two Emmys, four Golden Mikes, several Associated Press Certificates of Excellence, two Gracies, and an award for Excellence in Reporting from the NAACP.  She has received numerous other awards including the 2003 National Journalism Award from the Asian American Journalists Association.

Margaret Fung

Co-founder and Executive Director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).  Over 10,000 Asian Americans benefit yearly from legal counseling and community programs provided by AALDEF, which is a nonpartisan organization formed in 1974 to protect and promote the civil rights of Asian Americans, through litigation, education, and legal advocacy. Under Fung's leadership, AALDEF has successfully defended the civil rights of members of the Asian-American community nationwide in areas including voting, housing, and economic justice for

workers.

Source:  American Bar Association

Dr. Sanjay Gupta 

American neurosurgeon and media personality on health-related issues.  An assistant professor of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine and associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, he is best known as CNN's chief medical correspondent, hosting the network's weekend health program House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and making frequent appearances on their American Morning, Larry King Live, and Anderson Cooper 360 programs. His reports from Charity Hospital in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina helped "Charity Hospital" win a 2006 Emmy Award for "Outstanding Feature Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast".  Dr. Gupta publishes a column in Time Magazine and is a special correspondent for CBS News. His book Chasing Life was a New York Times and national bestseller.

Source:  Wikipedia

Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi

An American sociologistt (now retired), best known for his principled resistance to the Japanese American internment during World War II, and the court case which bears his name, Hirabayashi v. United States.  Although he at first considered accepting internment he ultimately became one of three to openly defy it.  In 1942 he turned himself into the FBI, and after being convicted for curfew violation was sentenced to 90 days in prison. He did this in part to appeal the verdict all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court  with the backing of the ACLU.  Soon after retiring, Hirabayashi received a call that would prove consequential. Peter Irons, a political science professor from the University of California, San Diego, had uncovered documents that clearly showed evidence of government misconduct in 1942-evidence that the government knew there was no military reason for the exclusion order but withheld that information from the Supreme Court. With this new information, Hirabayashi's case was retried and in 1987 his conviction was overturned.

Source:  Wikipedia

Dr. David Ho

At age 37, David Ho was appointed Director of the new Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City. After the virus was identified, most researchers believed that the disease entered a dormant phase after the initial infection, since most patients did not become seriously ill until months or years after the first exposure. Dr. Ho's research proved that the virus actually multiplies in vast numbers from the very beginning, while the immune system exhausts itself fighting the virus. Armed with this discovery, Dr. Ho shifted attention from treatment of the final losing months of the disease and sought a way to fight the virus in the first stages of the infection. His breakthrough work with the treatment of AIDS moved Time Magazine to name him its Man of the Year in 1996. Dr. Ho continues searching for improved treatments for AIDS, and to search for a vaccine which will eliminate the threat of AIDS altogether.

Source:  Academy of Achievement

Daniel Inouye

U.S. Senator from Hawaii.  He has been a Senator since 1963. He has continuously represented Hawaii in the U.S. Congress since it achieved statehood in 1959, serving as Hawaii's first U.S. Representative and later a U.S. Senator. Senator Inouye was the first Japanese American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the first in the U.S. Senate. He is the third oldest U.S. Senator after Robert Byrd and Frank Lautenberg. He is also a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Source:  Wikipedia

 Bobby Jindal

Indian American Governor of Louisiana.  Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2004.  Second ever Indian American elected to Congress.  At his election in 2007 he was the youngest current governor in the United States.

Andrea Jung

Chairman & CEO Avon Products, Listed among Fortune Magazine 50 Most Powerful women in business for 2006.  In 2001 she was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal.  During her tenure as Chairman of the Board and CEO, she has successfully helped define the Avon's company vision as "The Company for Women" and has been involved in a series of image-enhancing programs designed to help revitalize the corporation's reputation as the foremost direct seller of beauty products worldwide.

Source:  Wikipedia

Vinod Khosla

One of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, the company responsible for the commercialization of the RISC chip, a microprocessor that dominated the workstation industry in the 1980s.  Mr. Khosla is also a very successful venture capitalist and founder of Khosla Ventures. He is also listed on Forbes Magazine's List of the 400 Richest Americans.

Maxine Hong Kingston

Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.  Her works often reflect on her cultural heritage and blend fiction with non-fiction. Among her works are The Woman Warrior (1976), awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and China Men (1980), which was awarded the 1981 National Book Award.  Though Ms. Kingston's work is highly acclaimed, it has also received a great deal of criticism, especially from the Chinese American community.  Kingston subtly commented on her critics' opinions in a 1990 interview, in which she stated that men believe that minority women writers have "achieved success by collaborating with the white racist establishment," by "pander[ing] to the white taste for feminist writing... It's a one-sided argument because the women don't answer. We let them say those things because we don't want to be divisive."^[She was awarded the 1997 National Humanities Medal by President of the United States Bill Clinton. 

Source:  Wikipedia

 Jennifer Koh

Grammy nominated American violinist, born to Korean parents.  She has performed extensively with such renowned orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.  A committed educator, Ms. Koh has also won high praise for her performances in classrooms around the country under her innovative Music Messenger outreach program. Now in its sixth year, the program continues to form an important part of her musical activities. "The majority of children in this country have not been given an opportunity to learn music as a form of self-expression ,"she asserts, "and I want to share the experience of creating and listening to music with them." Ms. Koh's outreach efforts have taken her to classrooms all over the country to perform challenging music - whether it be Bach, Paganini, or Bartók - for thousands of students who have little opportunity to hear classical music in their daily lives.

Source:  Jennifer Koh website

 Fred Korematsu

During World War II when Japanese Americans were ordered to go to internment camps, Mr. Korematsu refused, was arrested, convicted, and sent to an internment camp in 1942. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1944. The case was revisited long afterward when Peter Irons, a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, discovered documents that indicated that when it went to the Supreme Court, the government had suppressed its own findings that Japanese-Americans on the West Coast were not, in fact, security threats. In light of that information, Judge Marilyn H. Patel of Federal District Court in San Francisco overturned Mr. Korematsu's conviction in November 1983. In 1988 Congress passed legislation apologizing for the internments and awarded each survivor $20,000.  When President Bill Clinton presented Mr. Korematsu with the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, in January 1998, the president likened him to Linda Brown and Rosa Parks in the civil rights struggles of the 1950's. 

Sources:  Wikipedia, Asianconnections.com,  and New York Times

 Michelle Kwan

American Olympic figure skater and winner of two Olympic medals, five World Championships, and nine U.S. Championships.  She is the most decorated figure skater in U.S. history.  She was appointed by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice as a public diplomacy ambassador in 2006, a non-salaried position, which required extensive traveling and working to represent American values, especially to young people and sports enthusiasts.

 Daphne Kwok

As former Executive Director Organization of Chinese Americans, oversaw 1996 APIA vote effort focusing on voter education, voter registration, and voter mobilization of the APA community. She was also the former Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, and Executive Director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation.

 Jhumpa Lahiri

Pulitzer Prize winning (Interpreter of Maladies) American writer of Bengali Indian descent. Lahiri was a recipient of the Transatlantic Review award from Henfield foundation and the fiction prize from Louisville Review. The New Yorker has published three of her stories and named her as 'one of the 20 best writers under the age of 40.'  The greatest tribute to her talent thus far has been the award for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  She is the first Indian woman to receive this award.

 Li Young Lee

American Poet whose father was personal physician to Mao Zedong while in China.  His father relocated the family to Indonesia.  In 1959 the family fled the country to escape anti-Chinese sentiment, and after a five year trek through Hong Kong, Macau, and Japan, they settled in the United States in 1964.

Ang Lee

Taiwanese American Academy Award winning film director, producer, and screenwriter.  He made his directorial debut in 1992 with Pushing Hands, and earned Academy Award nominations for his next two films, The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). Later films include Sense and Sensibility (1995, Best Picture Oscar nomination), The Ice Storm (1997), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, four Oscars, four BAFTA Awards, Best Director Golden Globe), and Hulk (2003). In 2006, Mr. Lee became the first Asian to win an Academy Award for Best Director for his film Brokeback Mountain (Best Achievement in Directing 2005, Brokeback Mountain). 

Source:  biography.com

Loida Lewis

CEO and Chairman TLC Beatrice International Holdings, Inc.  Ms. Lewis is a successful attorney and founding member of the Asian American Legal Education and Defense Fund (AALDEF). She is also an industrialist, philanthropist, and civic leader.  She assumed the leadership of TLC Beatrice International Holdings, Inc. in February, 1994, a year after the death of her husband, Reginald F. Lewis, who acquired Beatrice International in December 1987 in a $985 million leveraged buyout, creating the largest African American owned company in the United States.  Ms. Lewis moved quickly to cut costs, sell non-core and under performing assets, reduce debt and strengthen her management team.  Ms. Lewis has written books on U.S. immigration law, and her book, How to Get a Green Card, is a bestseller. Ms. Lewis frequently appears in charity and fund-raising events, making financial donations and providing moral support to poverty alleviation projects in the Philippines.

Source:  Wikipedia

Maya Lin 

World renowned American architect and artist of Chinese descent, known for her work in sculpture and landscape art.  Her most popular work is the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C. As a 21-year-old architecture student at Yale, Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a class project, then entered it in the largest design competition in American history. Her striking proposal, a V-shaped wall of black stone, etched with the names of 58,000 dead soldiers, beat out the submissions of 1,420 other entrants. She encountered ferocious criticism when her unconventional design was selected.  Feelings were running so high that her name was not even mentioned at the dedication of the memorial in 1982. Her inspiring vision has since become the most-visited memorial in the nation's capital.

Source:  Academy of Achievement

Gary Locke

Gary Faye Locke is an American politician . He is the current United States Secretary of Commerce and was the 21st Governor of Washington, serving from 1997 to 2005. Locke was the first, and remains the only, Chinese American to serve as governor of a state in United States history.   In a surprise move, Locke announced in July 2003 that he would not seek a third term. Susan Paynter, a columnist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, suggested that slurs, insults, and threats that Locke and his family received, especially the large number which came after his rebuttal to George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, played a role in Locke's decision to leave office after two terms. The governor's office received hundreds of threatening letters and e-mails; others threatened to kill his children.   On February 25, 2009, Locke was announced as President Barack Obama's choice for Secretary of Commerce. His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on March 24, 2009. Locke was sworn in March 26, 2009.

Source:  Wikipedia

 Edward Tsang Lu, Ph.D.

Astronaut and research physicist.  Veteran of three space missions who has logged over 206 days in space.  Dr. Lu has worked in the astronaut office computer support branch, served as lead astronaut for Space Station training, and lead astronaut for Shuttle training. Dr. Lu was the first American to launch as the Flight Engineer of a Soyuz spacecraft, and the first American to launch and land on a Soyuz spacecraft (Soyuz TMA-2). As Flight Engineer and NASA ISS Science Officer Dr. Lu spent a successful 6-month tour of duty aboard the International Space Station maintaining ISS systems and overseeing science operations.  Dr. Lu retired from NASA in order to pursue private interests.

Source:  NASA

Lucy Lui

American actress of Chinese descent, co-star of Charlie's Angels movies, and played the role of Ling Woo in the Ally McBeal television series, which earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.  Liu is also an artist in several media, and has had three gallery shows showcasing her collage, paintings, and photography.  In 2001, Liu was the spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day fundraiser which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer research and education. In 2005, Liu was appointed a U.S. Fund for UNICEF Ambassador; in that capacity, she has traveled to Pakistan and Lesotho, among other countries. She also hosted an MTV documentary for the MTV EXIT campaign in 2007, produced to raise awareness of human trafficking in Asia.

Source:  Wikipedia

Yo-Yo Ma

Multi Grammy Award winning Chinese American virtuoso cellist and composer.  Also highly accomplished on the piano, viola, and violin.  One of the most revered cello players of the 20th and 21st centuries.  His discography of over 75 albums (including 15 Grammy® Award winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests. He has made several successful recordings that defy categorization, among them Hush with Bobby McFerrin, Appalachia Waltz and Appalachian Journey with Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer and two Grammy®-winning tributes to the music of Brazil, Obrigado Brazil and Obrigado Brazil - Live in Concert. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the Glenn Gould Prize (1999), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Dan David Prize (2006), the Sonning Prize (2006), and the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award (2008).  Appointed a CultureConnect Ambassador by the United States Department of State in 2002, Yo-Yo Ma has met with, trained and mentored thousands of students worldwide including Lithuania, Korea, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, and China. In 2006, Secretary General Kofi Annan named him a U.N. Messenger of Peace and in 2007 Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon extended his appointment.

Source:  Yo-Yo Ma website

Zubin Mehta

Award winning Indian American Conductor of Western classical music who has served as Music Director and Conductor of symphony orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Metropolitan Opera, and the Vienna State Opera.

 Norman Mineta

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportaion and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce.  During his tenure with the Department of Transportation he guided the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).  From 1992 to 1994 he chaired the House Transportation and Public Works Committee.  He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honor.

Mira Nair

Accomplished Indian American Film Director, Writer, Producer.  Among her most successful works is Mississippi Masala, an interracial love story set in the American south and Uganda, starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury, which won three awards at the Venice Film Festival, including Best Screenplay, and The Audience Choice Award.

Karen Narasaki

Nationally renowned civil rights leader and human rights activist.  President and Executive Director of the Asian American Justice Center(AAJC), formerly known as the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC).

Colonel Ellison Onizuka

Colonel Onizuka was an astronaut and was mission specialist on the space shuttle Challenger, and was killed along with the rest of his crew members when Challenger exploded shortly after launch on January 28, 1986.  He first flew as a mission specialist on STS 51-C, the first Space Shuttle Department of Defense mission, on January 24, 1985. During the mission Colonel Onizuka was responsible for the primary payload activities, which included the deployment of a modified Inertial Upper Stage (IUS). He was presented the Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, Air Force Organizational Excellence Award, and National Defense Service Medal. Colonel Onizuka was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Source:  NASA

Chan Ho Park

First Korean American to play major league baseball.  Park made his professional debut for the Dodgers on April 8, 1994 against the Atlanta Braves as a reliever, working one inning. Park played in one additional game for the Dodgers that season and then spent the bulk of the season with the Class AA San Antonio Missions , finishing with a 5-7 record and a 3.55 era for the Missions in 20 starts with 100 strikeouts.  In 1996, his first full season with the Dodgers, he went 5-5 with a 3.64 ERA in 48 games (10 starts). He recorded his first win on April 6 against the Chicago Cubs.

Park had a breakout season in 1997 as he became a fulltime starter. He tied for the team lead in victories, while posting a 14-8 record and a 3.38 ERA in 32 appearances, 29 of them starts.  In 1998, he was 15-9 with a 3.71 ERA in 34 starts and struck out 191 batters in 220.2 innings.  He ranked second in the National League in strikeouts in 2000 with 217 and second in opposing batting average (.214). He finished the season 18-10 with a 3.27 ERA, the best totals of his career. On January 6, 2009, Park signed a one-year, incentive-laden, $2.5 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. On March 31, 2009, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro announced that Chan Ho Park had won the fifth starter job.

Source:  Wikipedia

 I. M. Pei

Pritzker Prize winning Chinese American Architect, known as the last master of high modernist architecture.  His works include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio; the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong; and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.

 Kal Penn

American film and television actor of Indian descent, and Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Obama Administration.  Best known for his role as Dr. Lawrence Kutner on the popular Fox Television program House.  On April 8, 2009 Penn announced that he would join the Obama administration as Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. This necessitated that his character Lawrence Kutner  be written out of the TV series House.  In his new role with the Obama administration, Penn will serve as a liaison with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.

Source: Wikipedia

Christine Poon

Current Dean of the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. Former Vice Chairman and board member with Johnson & Johnson, and worldwide chair of the Pharmaceuticals Group, where she provided oversight for pharmaceuticals, which generated $24.9 billion, representing approximately 41 percent of the company's total sales revenues in 2007.  Ms. Poon was recognized as Business Leader of the Future by CNBC/Wall Street Journal in 2005. She has consistently ranked among Forbes' 100 Most Powerful Women in Business.

Source:  Ohio State University, University Communications

 Mike Shinoda

American musician, record producer, and artist.  Best known as the rapper, songwriter, keyboardist, background vocalist, and rhythm guitarist for the alternative rock band, Linkin Park, and as a solo rapper.

General Eric Shinseki

Retired U.S. Army General Eric K. Shinseki was nominated by President Barack Obama on December 7, 2008 to serve as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. His nomination was confirmed by the Senate on January 20, 2009, and he was sworn in as the seventh Secretary of Veterans Affairs on January 21, 2009. He is a veteran of combat in Vietnam.  Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he led the Army during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and integrated the pursuit of the Global War on Terrorism with Army Transformation, successfully enabling the Army to continue to transform while at war.

Source:  U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs

 David Sun

Co-Founder of Kingston Technologies, Inc., the nations largest privately held computer memory firm, and listed among Forbes Magazine's 400 Richest Americans. The company's USB flash drives and flash cards are used extensively in cell phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, etc.

Amy Tan

Award winning American Novelist of Chinese descent. Her novels are The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, and Saving Fish from Drowning, all New York Times bestsellers and the recipient of various awards. She was co-producer and co-screenwriter for the film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club.  She has written two children's books, Sagwa and The Moon Lady, and was the Creative Consultant for Sagwa, the Emmy nominated television series for children which has aired worldwide. Her work has been translated into 35 languages, from Spanish, French, and Finnish to Chinese, Arabic, and Hebrew.

Source:  Amy Tan website

 Daniel C. Tsui, Ph.D.

American physicist of Chinese descent, and currently Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University and adjunct senior research scientist in the Department of Physics at Columbia University.  He is one of the 1998 Nobel Prize Winners in Physics for his contributions to the discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect.

Source:  Princeton University, Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials

 John Tu

Co-Founder of Kingston Technologies, Inc., the nations largest privately held computer memory firm, and listed among Forbes Magazine's 400 Richest Americans.  Mr. Tu moved to the United States, where he believed his true calling to be. He met up in Southern California with David Sun, who he knew through a mutual friend. The two began a small business in personal computer memory out of their garage. The garage enterprise grew exponentially until the day of October 19, 1987, or the big stock market crash known as Black Monday. David and John lost everything. In an interview, John said, "The day the market crashed was the beginning of our American Dream. Had we not lost everything I guarantee you that there may not be a Kingston Technology." Together, they built the company back up step by step, until they became the top independent memory company. Humbled by his journey from an immigrant worker in a foreign country to one of the wealthiest Americans, according to Forbes Magazine, John Tu finds ways to give back to people. He is the main contributor to Erin Gruwell's Freedom Writers Foundation. Moved by the aspirations of Erin Gruwell, Tu donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to help her underprivileged students. An extraordinary man with an enormous appreciation of human life and talent, John Tu gives hope to the business world that is so full of greedy and self-important individuals crowding the headlines.

Source:  The My Hero Project

 Charles B. Wang

Co-founder of Computer Associates, International (CA) and majority owner of the New York Islanders ice hockey team.  He is an American of Chinese descent.  He is the author of two books to help executives master technology:  Techno Vision (1994) and Techno Vision II (1997).  He is the master developer of the Lighthouse, the transformation of Nassau Coliseum and the surrounding 150 acres, which will include a five-star hotel, condominiums, an athletic complex featuring four ice rinks, a basketball facility and state of the art health club, a sports technology center, open air plaza, and conference center.

Source:  Wikipedia

Tiger Woods

American golfer whose achievements rank him among the most successful golfers of all time.  He was the highest paid professional athlete in 2008, earning an estimated $110 million from winnings and endorsements.  He has won fourteen professional major golf championships, 66 PGA Tour events, and he has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer.  He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour.

Source:  Wikipedia

Kristi Yamaguchi

American figure skater of Japanese descent. 1992 Olympic Champion in women's singles,  1991 and 1992 World Figure Skating Championship, 1992 U.S. Figure Skating Championship.  Inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in December 2005. Toured with Stars on Ice as a professional from 1992 - 2002 and won numerous professional competitions.  Ms. Yamaguchi has also become a highly sought after spokeswoman.

Source:  Kristi Yamaguchi Official website

Jerry Yang

Jerry Yang, a Taiwanese native raised in San Jose, Calif., co-created the Yahoo! Internet navigational guide in April 1994 with David Filo and co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in April 1995. He served as chief executive officer of the company from June 2007 to January 2009.  Mr. Yang, a leading force in the Internet media industry, has been instrumental in building Yahoo! into the world's most highly trafficked Web site and one of the world's most recognized brands. Since the company's founding, Mr. Yang has been a key member of the executive management team. His focus at Yahoo! over the years has included corporate strategy, Yahoo!'s technology vision, strategic business partnerships and international joint ventures, and recruiting key talent. In addition to serving on the Yahoo! Board of Directors, Mr. Yang currently serves on the board of directors of Cisco Systems, Yahoo! Japan, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and is also on the Stanford University Board of Trustees.

Source:  Yahoo! Corporate website

 Fareed Zakaria

American of Indian descent.  Editor of Newsweek International; host of Fareed Zakaria, GPS on CNN; author of the bestsellers, The Future Freedom, which has been translated into 20 languages, and The Post American World. He was named "one of the 21 most important people of the 21st century" by Esquire Magazine.  In 2007, he was named one of the 100 leading public intellectuals in the world by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines.

Source:  Fareed Zakaria Official website