| Abstract Scope |
My 50-year journey in science and engineering starts with the excitement of the first moon landing (while I was a secondary school student) and culminates in election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and SUNY Distinguished Professorship. The journey includes studying at California Institute of Technology (the first woman engineering graduate of this university) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (the first woman Ph.D. student of the late Professor Millie Dresselhaus), switching from electrical engineering to materials science, jumping from electronic material research to concrete research, inventing smart concrete (concrete that can sense its own condition), discovering interface-derived viscoelasticity, and making paradigm shifts in the design of thermal interface materials (for microelectronic cooling) and electromagnetic interference shielding materials (for protecting electronics). I also share the importance of broad education, the willingness to jump from one's comfort zone (a key to creativity), sustained work, and having a purpose in life. |