Miriam Santiago Miriam Santiago (1975) was a Filipino politician, notable for having served in all three branches of the Philippine government. Miriam earned her law degree from the University of Michigan and had a Barbour Scholarship in 1975. After completing her education, Miriam returned to the Philippines and began a lengthy career in all three branches of the government. Miriam was named one of The Most 100 Powerful Women in the World in 1997 by The Australian magazine. In October 2015, she declared her candidacy for the nation’s presidency in the 2016 elections.
Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur For Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur, graduate education is part of a University of Michigan family legacy. She and her mother were both Barbour Scholars at Michigan, an almost century-old fellowship program for Asian women established by Levi Barbour, then a regent of the University. For both of Jiu-Hwa’s parents, education was the touchstone of their lives and a value they instilled in their daughter. But education wasn’t taken for granted—in fact, as Jiu-Hwa points out, “it’s my parents who struggled.” Jiu-Hwa’s mother, Wei-Djen Djang Lo, attended the Shanghai Baptist College, where she was in an early class of female students admitted to the school. The instruction was taught in English by American missionaries, so when she graduated Wei-Djen was sufficiently prepared to study in the U.S. In 1926, Wei-Djen received a Barbour Scholarship to attend U-M. The funding was critical because there were very limited opportunities for women from China to study abroad, and to afford it. In 1926-1927, Jiu-Hwa’s mother earned a Master’s in Political Science from Michigan. Upon her return to China, she played a role in the groves of academe pursuing a lengthy career in education and government. Jiu-Hwa mentions the significant challenge that language presented for many students from her parents’ generation and how rare her mother’s experience was. Her father, Chia-Lun Lo, majored in foreign languages and literature as an undergraduate at the National Peking University, and when he finished, he won a scholarship that allowed him to chart his own academic program in graduate schools abroad. She explains, “He never completed a graduate degree, but he spent six years traveling from school to school. He spent a year each at Columbia, Princeton, the Universities of London, of Paris, and Berlin, where he studied with their most renowned faculty and gleaned the best each had to offer. To help further his scholarship grant, he also wrote articles for newspapers as he went.” A prolific writer, calligrapher and collector of classical Chinese paintings, Chia-Lun Lo dedicated his life to education and public service. Lo joined the National Government in 1927 as deputy director of studies for the newly established Central Party Affairs Institute (now the National Cheng-Chi University) and became president of National Tsinghua University from 1928-1930 and National Central University from 1932-1941. He represented educators in the initial sessions of the National Assembly and served as the Chinese ambassador to India from 1947-1949. He played such an integral role in reforming education in Taiwan that today students learn about his accomplishments in their curriculum. Jiu-Hwa’s parents met in China as student activists at a national rally in 1919 protesting the Treaty of Versailles; her father was one of the student leaders and her mother was selected as a female delegate from her school. Jiu-Hwa reflects on the exceptional people she was surrounded with as a result of her parents’ education and the path they made possible for her. “There were professional women, and growing up I met a lot of men and women in powerful roles. Pursuing education was not much of a stretch for me.” Jiu-Hwa herself enjoyed a truly global education. She was born in China but spent her childhood and adolescence with her parents first in India then in Australia, where she attended the University of Sydney for her bachelor’s degree. When she came to U-M for graduate school, she lived in Martha Cook, a mostly undergraduate, all women’s residence hall, and loved it. “I was just across from the library and classes, and at that time the dorm admitted several international graduate students, and another one of them was also a Barbour Scholar.” Jiu-Hwa studied history and anthropology and, in addition to the Barbour Scholarship, earned a Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship as well. She completed her Ph.D. in 1972. “I was a teaching fellow for one year and became a part-time lecturer at Eastern Michigan University after that. Once I finished my dissertation, they hired me on a full-time, tenure-track basis.” She spent a long and fruitful career at EMU, teaching and inspiring decades of students. In retirement, Jiu-Hwa has had a chance to reflect on not only her own achievements, but those of her parents as well. On a recent trip to Taipei, Jiu-Hwa was the guest of honor when National Cheng-Chi University dedicated a new facility housing her father’s 13,000-volume book collection. The travels of this collection are a story out of an action movie. To escape the coming Japanese invasion during World War II, Chia-Lun loaded his vast collection, many of them masterpieces dating back to the 17th century, into 24 lead-lined trunks. Over the course of many years, they were evacuated for safe-keeping up the Yangtze River, back to Nanjing, then eventually to Taiwan and on to Australia. They stayed in storage in Australia and the U.S. for decades. Miraculously, the collection remained intact and just a few years ago was donated to National Cheng-Chi—a fitting memorial to Chia-Lun Lo’s memory and to the impact he has had on the cultural and educational life of the people of Taiwan. Jiu-Hwa’s own Michigan legacy has been extending its reach considerably in recent years. In 2011 she established the Chia-Lun Lo Fund at Rackham to support at least four graduate students every year. She has a close relationship with Rackham and each year meets the students funded by her gift. She has in addition established scholarship programs in both National Central and National Cheng-Chi Universities of Taiwan in her father’s name, for both undergraduate and graduate students. “Perhaps some of the recipients will continue their studies and earn their highest degrees at the University of Michigan.” She continues, “I wanted to do this for my parents. There will never be enough money for scholarships, and I’m so grateful for this education.” Jiu-Hwa also enjoys meeting the new cohort of Barbour Scholars each March. She encourages all the students she meets to make the most of their time at Michigan and to experience everything the University and Ann Arbor have to offer. Jiu-Hwa still enjoys traveling and pursuing new intellectual interests. She is in a reading group focused on American history and volunteers with Elderwise and the Chelsea Senior Center. While she does leave town to travel, she remarks, “There are wonderful things in Ann Arbor: the world comes to you.” And for this global alum, that is saying a lot!
Cheng-shu Wang Chang Cheng-shu Wang Chang (1941) earned her B.S. and M.S. from Yenching University. In 1945, she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her dissertation was titled, “The Quantum Theory of the Second Viral Coefficient of the Diatomic Gas.” Between 1945-6 and 1948-9, she worked as a researcher at Princeton, Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). From 1956-64, she founded and led the first Chinese research group on thermonuclear reactions at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Between 1964-78, she served as a Ministry of Nuclear Industry researcher and deputy director. She is credited with an adjustment to the Boltzmann equation in polyatomic gases (WC-U equation), published more than ten research papers, and made overall significant contributions to statistical physics and nuclear physics.
Ming-chen Wang Ming-chen Wang (1938) has been called by many as “The Chinese Madame Curie” due to her extraordinary contributions to modern physics. Dr. Wang was born on October 3, 1906 and earned her bachelor’s degree from Yenching University in 1928. She received a Barbour Scholarship but was unable to afford the traveling expenses, so she had to turn it down and continue her graduate studies at Yenching, where she later earned her master’s degree. After graduation, she returned to Ginling at Dr. Wu Yi-fang’s invitation and taught there from 1932-38. During this period, Wang earned the highest score in the qualifying exam for the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program to the UK. Nevertheless, she was rejected by the person in charge of the scholarship program in China, who thought that it would be a waste of money to send a female student to study physics abroad. Instead, he convinced the committee to award the scholarship to a male student who had earned the second-highest score. Undaunted, Wang was awarded the Barbour Scholarship in 1937. With one exception, Wang earned A’s and A+’s in all her required courses in her first two years at U-M, for which she was honored three times with the Golden Key Award. In the fall of 1940, she began preparing her Ph.D. dissertation, with Dr. G. E. Uhlenhbeck, a pioneer in particle physics, as her advisor. They worked together at Michigan until 1942, when she earned her Ph.D. in Physics. Dr. Wang then conducted radar research with Dr. Unlenbeck in the Radiation Lab at MIT for three years. In 1945, she published a paper with Unlenbeck (based on her Ph.D. dissertation) in Reviews of Modern Physics titled, “On the Theory of the Brownian Motion II.” This paper, as Dr. G. W. Ford, Professor Emeritus of Physics at Michigan indicated in the National Academy of Sciences memoir of George Uhlenbeck, “is still regarded as the standard reference for physicists.” Indeed, the paper has been cited more than 1,500 times. After returning to China for two years, Dr. Wang came back to the U.S. to work at the College of Notre Dame as a researcher for the U.S. Navy. With Communist Chinese forces involved in the Korean War and the rise of McCarthyism in the U.S., she quit her job in 1952 and was about to return to China. However, because she had worked on radar research at MIT and for the U.S. Navy at Notre Dame, the immigration authorities banned her from leaving the U.S. It was not until May of 1955 when she and her husband were allowed to leave and return to China. Dr. Wang was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution between 1968 and 1974. She worked at Tsinghua University until her retirement in 1976. Dr. Jens Zorn, Professor Emeritus of Physics at Michigan, has written that “Dr. Ming-chen Wang’s contribution to statistical mechanics is widely recognized,” and that “her contributions to physics have a permanent place in the history of the field.”
I-djen Ho When I-djen Ho (also stylized as: He qia zhen, He Yizhen, or Heyi Zhen) (1933) was born in 1910, during the last years of the Qing Dynasty, women with bound feet were still the majority. However, I-djen’s grandmother, Wang Xiechangda, argued against foot binding and ensured that I-djen’s feet were not bound. Wang, an open-minded educator and social activist for women’s rights, established Zhehua Women’s School, from which I-djen and her sisters graduated. At that time, it was rare for women in China to attend college. Yet the three girls of the family’s eight children—He Yizhen, He Zehui, and He Zeying—became known as the “Three He sisters” in Chinese scientific circles. After I-djen graduated from Zhenhua Girls School in 1926 at the age of 16, she studied Mathematics and Physics at Ginling College. In 1930, at the age of twenty, she graduated from Ginling College and began her first teaching position in a missionary school for one year. I-djen earned a scholarship at Mount Holyoke College, where she began her postgraduate education in 1931 and obtained and Master’s degree in Chemistry and Physics in 1933. She was awarded a Barbour Scholarship from the University of Michigan, where she earned her Ph.D. in Physics in 1937. In her doctoral research, I-djen focused on spectroscopy of transition metal. Her dissertation was titled, “An Analysis of the Spectrum of Yttrium.” In 1937, when the China-Japan war began, I-djen returned to China and taught at Yanjing University (now Beijing Normal University). While teaching at Yanjing University, she met Ge Tingsui, a student who spent a lot of time courting her. After they married in 1941 in Shanghai, they decided to study abroad in America. I-djen worked as a research assistant for Dr. Ralph A. Beebe at Amherst College. Her research topic was the measurement of thermal adoption in chemistry. She also worked for short time at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the University of Chicago’s Metal Research Institute. During this period, I-djen gave birth to two children who later both became scientists. Her daughter, Ge Yunpei, became a professor at Shenyang Jianzhu University, and her son, Ge Yunjian, became an expert in robotics. In 1949, the year the People’s Republic of China was founded, I-djen returned to China with her husband and resumed teaching at Yanjing University. In 1952, she began working at the Institute of Metal Research in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Because the country needed practical technology, I-djen was asked to improve the production rate of China’s steel industry. She applied her knowledge of spectroscopy, helping to solve problems in steel production and propel China’s industrialization. On behalf of China, she attended the 6th International Conference of Raman Spectroscopy in 1956, in Holland. From 1966 to 1976, I-djen’s research was interrupted during the Cultural Revolution, when intellectuals became targets of political persecution. Because of her study abroad experience, she experienced persecution. When the Cultural Revolution of China ended in 1976, I-djen continued her theoretical research. She was a pioneer in exploring amorphous state physic and metallic glass fields. I-djen published two important papers: “Effect of the Isothermal Effectiveness Near the Peak of the Metallic Glass Pd80Si20Tg” and “A New Peak Near Metallic Glass T.” Her papers won the Second Class Prizes of The State Scientific and Technological Progress Award of Chinese Academy of Science in 1988. She then won the Third Class Prizes of The Natural Science Award of Chinese Academy of Science in 1995 and 1996. In Oct. 1982, she became one of the founders of Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Science. I-djen was one of five scientists who could be called “sir” (an outdated honorific form for intellectuals regardless of gender).
Wu Ching-yi Wu Ching-yi, also known as Blanche Wu, (1932) graduated from Ginling College with her B.A. in 1923 and in 1926 joined Ginling’s faculty as a professor in the biology department. In 1932, she was granted a two-year Barbour Scholarship, obtaining her master’s degree in Botany in 1934. Blanche returned to China during the Imperial Japanese army’s invasion of the country. During this time, many colleges and universities moved to west China where it was safer. Blanche, however, decided to remain on the Ginling University campus with Miss Minnie Vautrin and Mrs. Tsen Shui-fang. The Japanese army’s takeover of Nanking on December 13, 1937 was followed by six weeks of Japanese soldiers looting, burning, killing, and raping women and girls. Approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed combatants were killed in less than two months. During the Rape of Nanking, Blanche and her colleagues turned the Ginling campus into a refugee camp for more than 10,000 women and children. Miss Vautrin patrolled the campus to chase away Japanese soldiers who tried to sneak in, while Blanche distributed supplies to the refugees. In March of 1938, Ginling was still hiding 3,300 refugees who were afraid for their lives. Miss Vautrin began vocational classes for the women and young girls in the refugee camp so they could learn skills. Blanche was actively involved as a biology teacher. When the Ginling campus was closed in June 1942 after the Pearl Harbor attack, Blanche moved to the University of Nanking campus. With the surrender of Japan in August of 1945, she was the first person to exercise Ginling College’s right to reclaim its property from the Japanese, such as books, furniture, and art. To preserve the school and prepare for the return of refugees from the western region, she and other Ginlingers decided to open Ginling Middle School in the fall of 1945, and she was elected Principal. Blanche took a sabbatical leave to study in the U.S. in 1948. With the communist takeover in 1949, she had to stay in the U.S., where she studied and worked at Oregon State College, the University of Kentucky, Hartford Seminary, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute, until she retired in 1969.
Maria Kalaw Katigbak Maria Kalaw Katigbak’s (1932) wide-ranging accomplishments include beauty queen, scholar, Senator, and civic leader. After graduating as high school valedictorian, Maria earned her Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Master of Arts in Social Work from the University of the Philippines in 1932. Like her mother, she was also crowned “Queen of the Manila Carnival” (1931-32). In 1932, Maria came to the University of Michigan as a Barbour Scholar and earned her master’s degree in English Literature. At U-M, she served as president of the Philippine-Michigan Club and as secretary of the Cosmopolitan Club for Foreign Students. Maria later attended the University of Santo Tomas, where she received her doctorate in Social Sciences. In 1961, she was elected as the lone woman member of the Philippine Senate—the second woman senator in the country—and served from 1961 to 1963. As a senator, Maria authored the Consumer Protection Act, which enabled consumers to buy goods in installments and made similar forms of transaction by credit. She also wrote regulations for financing companies, created the National Commission on Culture, and established the Philippine Executive Academy as an affiliate of the University of the Philippines. As an active member of many civic organizations, Maria served as president of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines, the Municipal Symphony Orchestra, and the Philippine Women Writers’ Association, which she organized in 1938. She was also a member of the national board of the Catholic Women’s League, the UP Board of Regents, the Board of National Education, the Board of State Colleges, the University of the Philippines Board of Regents, and the Movies and Television Review and Classification Board. Maria also organized and was the first executive director of the Catholic Charities of Manila. As a scholar, Maria taught social work and English at several universities in the Philippines. She also wrote for the Manila Times and the Weekly Nation, and was chairman of the Writers Union of the Philippines. Her diverse interests took her to a number of international conferences: the Afro-Asian Conference of Girl Scouts in Athens, the Second Congress of the Lay Apostolate in Rome, and the 21st UNESCO General Conference in Paris, over which she presided as chairman.
Whang-Kyung Koh Whang-Kyung Koh (1931) graduated from the Seoul, Korea Higher Common School for Girls at the age of sixteen and from Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan with a B.A. in law at the age of nineteen. A profile in the October 10, 1930 issue of the Osaka Mainichi chronicled Whang-Kyung’s accomplishments: “A Korean-born Young Woman, the beautiful Miss Whang-Kyung Koh, will be Graduated with the Degree, Bachelor of Law, from Doshisha University next spring. As she is the first woman of her race to graduate from this university, the event is marked as the appearance of a red flower in the midst of green foliage.” Whang-Kyung entered the University of Michigan as a Barbour Scholar in the fall of 1931, earned an M.A. in Economics by February of 1933, then switched fields to Sociology. After completing the coursework requirements for a doctoral degree in Sociology and gathering her research material, she decided to return to her native country of Korea. Her goal was to engage in work that would help women develop constructively so they could make a positive contribution to the healthy development of Korean society. In 1935, Whang-Kyung returned to Korea, where she obtained a teaching position, spent some time completing her dissertation, and, with her sister, Gladys, organized a social settlement near Seoul, the expense of which, including one full-time worker, was paid out of the sisters’ salaries. In 1937, Whang-Kyung completed her dissertation, “Seasonal Distribution of Girl Delinquents in Detroit” and her Ph.D. in Sociology was granted by U-M. At this time, the settlement employed three workers and had spread out to five additional villages. The settlement included a school for underprivileged teenage girls, hygiene classes for wives and mothers, and a visiting nurses’ program. In addition to her work on the social settlement, Whang-Kyung became Dean of the School of Home Economics at Ehwa College in Seoul.
Stella Chun-Yi Wang Stella Chun-Yi Wang (1931), who earned her M.A. in Education from the University of Michigan in 1933, never dreamed that she would be immortalized in print. When she received her copy of the 1984 Rackham Reports, she was thrilled to find a reprinted photograph of her Barbour Scholars’ cohort. While most alumni would delight in seeing one of their college-era photographs, Stella’s joy stemmed from a decidedly uncommon reason: she had lost all of her photographs—along with her diploma, her thesis, and her English books—during the Chinese “Cultural Revolution” (1966-76). Under Mao Zedong’s leadership, the government sought to purge remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. As a result, millions of Chinese people suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. Stella’s materials from her graduate school experience at the University of Michigan had been destroyed. “They could destroy my materials but they couldn’t destroy my spiritual life,” Stella wrote in a letter to Jean D. Cobb, Director of the Rackham Reports, to thank her for sending the report. In her response to Stella’s letter, Ms. Cobb explained that because it had not been possible for many years to maintain contact with U-M alumni in China, Stella’s letter was especially welcome. She encouraged Stella to contact any Barbour Scholars living in China with whom she was acquainted and ask them to write the Rackham Graduate School. Then, Ms. Cobb asked the Office of the Registrar to request a copy of Stella’s diploma, which she sent, along with a photograph of Stella and the other Barbour Scholars of 1932-33. After receiving a copy of her diploma and photograph, Stella thanked the Rackham Graduate School for their assistance, remarking that the gifts brought back many happy memories of her days in Ann Arbor. “I am happy my name is not destroyed” from the University of Michigan alumni list, she wrote.
Kapila Khandvala Kapila Khandvala (1930) served as secretary of the Bombay Women’s Association, a branch of the All India Women’s Conference. She was elected as a delegate to represent Bombay at the conference held in Hychrasad. Kapila actively served her country through flood relief work, distributing cash, tools, and clothing to the needy. She also helped to ration cloth in India, because the situation had become so serious that people were without clothes and committing suicide for shame. Through personal calls and meetings, Kapila provided books and slates for the needy, along with enrolling 40,000 children in school. In addition, she was influential in obtaining milk at a nominal price for children, mothers, and the sick. Kapila also served as Secretary of the Municipal Schools Committee for Bombay, the first woman to hold this important position.
Me-Iung Ting Me-Iung Ting (1929, Barbour Fellow) graduated from the U-M Medical School in 1920 and then returned to China, where she served as head surgeon, supervising nurse, and director of Peiyang Women’s Hospital, Tientsin. In seven years, she increased the staff from eight to 45, conducted training schools for nurses, provided work for convalescents, and gave fifteen hundred babies a start in life. In addition, Dr. Ting operated a traveling dispensary for the surrounding country, opened temporary branch hospitals in neighboring villages during epidemics, and managed a goat farm in order to supply milk to combat tuberculosis. In 1928, she headed the Chinese delegation to the Pan-Pacific Women’s Congress in Honolulu. In 1929, Dr. Ting returned to the University of Michigan for post-graduate work. During her year as a Barbour Fellow (1929-30), Dr. Ting worked intensively, especially in pediatrics, and also assimilated much in curative and preventative medicine. The September 16, 1939 issue of the Michigan Alumus reported that Dr. Ting had asked for medical aid for 10,000 flood refugees—“It is understood that unprecedented floods have caused untold suffering which the diminutive but valiant Michigan doctor is trying to alleviate…She is regarded as one of the outstanding women medical workers in China today.” In 1943, Me-Iung became the Chairman of the International Relief Committee in Tientsin. Her work with the multinational refugees was widely recognized. In 1950, she immigrated to America and continued her contributions to medicine, serving hospitals in Florida, Mississippi, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. In October 1952, at the Convocation of Science and Human Values, Mount Holyoke College awarded Dr. Me-Iung Ting a citation for her outstanding work as a physician in Tientsin, China from 1922 to 1950. Her award cited her achievements as head of two hospitals, developer of an urban health program, regional president of the China Medical Association, president of China’s International Relief Committee (1943 to 1949), and administrator of UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration).
Sharkeshwari Agha Sharkeshwari Agha (1928) was described, in a Barbour Scholars newsletter, as “a young woman from a high-class Kashmiri Brahmin family.” Sharkeshwari earned a B.A., M.A., and LL.B. from the University of Allahabad and served as principal of the high school in that city. In the 1930s, she became a senior figure in Indian education. She served on a number of national committees and as secretary of the All-India Women’s Conference for Education and Social Reform. In addition, Sharkeshwari became a member of the court of Allahabad University, the supreme controlling body of that organization. In 1945, she participated in the United Nations Charter conference in San Francisco. Commissioned by the Government of India to survey women’s education, she saw many of her recommendations become policy.
Violet Lang Wu Violet Lang Wu (1928) earned her Ph.D. in Physics. Her dissertation was titled “The Infrared Absorption Spectrum of Propane” (1939). After completing her doctoral degree, Dr. Wu returned to China and taught Physics and Mathematics at Hwa Nen College.
Zing-whai Ku Zing-whai Ku (1928) began her university studies in 1920, when she enrolled in Shanghai DaTong University. Three years later, she participated in a government-funded program as an exchange scholar at Cornell. After earning an A.B. at Cornell University and an M.S. at Yale University, she came to the University of Michigan as a Barbour Scholar, where she earned her Ph.D. in Physics in 1931. Her dissertation was titled, “Intensity Distribution in Band Systems of Symmetrical Triatomic Molecules and the Absorption Spectrum of Chlorine-Dioxide.” After completing her dissertation, Dr. Ku returned to China where—between 1932 and 1983—she served as a Physics professor at various universities including NanKai University, Shanghai DaTong University, Academia Sinica, and the Beijing Steel and Iron Institute (University of Science and Technology Beijing).
Maria Pastrana Castrence Maria Pastrana Castrence (1927) endured major personal losses during WWII: the deaths of four family members and the destruction of her house, in which five of her completed research manuscripts went to ashes, including the Bibliography of Philippine Botany that she had worked on for several years. Overcoming these tragedies, Maria founded Filipinas College in Pasay, a suburb of Manila, in 1947, where she admitted several indigents and illiterate teenagers for free.
