Yildiz Bayazitoglu Rackham alum Yildiz Bayazitoglu has been shaping graduate students in mechanical engineering at Rice University for four decades. Her distinguished research and exceptional teaching and mentoring are hallmarks of her illustrious career, one that showcases the exceptional faculty that help comprise U-M alumni. Dr. Bayazitoglu has made significant contributions to radiation and convective heat transfer, phase-change heat transfer, thermophysical property determination, and solar collector design and analysis. A frequent keynote speaker, she has numerous patents in her name and is the author of more than 200 publications. She is an honorary member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Some of the many honors and awards she’s received include the Society of Women Engineers Distinguished Educator Award and 2012 Achievement Award, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Heat Transfer Memorial Award and Heat Transfer Division 75th Anniversary Medal, Rice University Brown Superior Teaching Award, the Hershel M. Rich Outstanding Invention Award, Graduate Student Association Teaching/Mentoring Award, Rice University Chance Teaching Prize, Rice University Faculty Impact Award and Rice University Presidential Mentoring Award. She was also the recipient of University of Michigan Mechanical Engineering 2013 Alumni Merit Award. All of this to say, she is fantastic at what she does and at sharing it with grad students. Yildiz shared with us her own experience as a graduate student at U-M and how her graduate education at U-M influenced her career. Yildiz and her husband came to U-M for their graduate degrees from their homeland in Turkey. Here at U-M, Yildiz spent two years as a Barbour Scholar. She remembers some of the regular gatherings: “I remember about ten of us coming together every semester. With some, I made friends and we would see each other whenever we had time. There was a big event and we – as international students – would bring dishes from our countries and come together and have dinner. I remember a gathering in a professor’s house when we dressed up in clothing from our native country and performed small dances or shows from our culture.” Yildiz recalls her years in Ann Arbor with fondness. “I liked it very much. Certainly the academic life, but I also enjoyed the city and the beautiful parks. Ann Arbor is a very impressive small town.” Overall, she feels her experience as an international graduate student was really great. “There were international activities we enjoyed, and faculty members would invite us to their homes for holidays to experience American life. They were very interested in our well-being, and community members were also. When we first moved to Michigan, we lived in a small bedroom of a house and I was the same age as one of the homeowner’s daughters. She took me in as one of her daughters and we lived with her for a semester before moving to our own apartment. Their first son was born after two years at U-M. “It was a wonderful motherhood experience.” She shares that being a young mother and graduate student at that time wasn’t easy. “Unless you have a very supportive husband, I wouldn’t have recommended women to have kids then.” She did appreciate that being a graduate student gave her flexibility in the daytime, in comparison to the experience of working mothers in traditional jobs. They returned to Turkey for two years, where Yildiz worked as assistant professor at the Middle East Technical University before settling in Texas. There, she was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Houston before accepting a faculty position at Rice University in 1977. Since 1996 she has been the Harry S. Cameron Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering. As a faculty member for forty years, Dr. Bayazitoglu has seen a number of changes in graduate education over the decades. She notes, “Graduate students have more challenges now. The biggest challenge is to be able to get the time and concentration that graduate school and their research needs. It is significant to commit to a specific research area and accomplish something in that small area – that is something graduate students should be fighting for. And that isn’t easy with so many good things happening around them.” Her advice for current students is to choose the right advisor. “For graduate students, the most important thing is your advisor. After that, get to know the people around you. Before you choose your advisor talk to other students, call alumni, study the records of professors and their students, and interview them. That’s exactly the thing you want to do to select the right advisor. You will be working with that person for many years. Ask a lot of questions before making your choice. She also emphasizes the importance of exploring other disciplines. “Take new courses, not only the technical courses you are required to take. Explore music or theater or whatever interests you, if you have the time. Don’t confine yourself to courses in your research field, think about long life hobbies, especially if you haven’t had them in your undergraduate studies.” Her third piece of advice stems from her own experience: “If you don’t have a small baby, travel.” Now, she makes up for the travel experience she missed as a graduate student and young mother at U-M. Yildiz says, “We travel as much as we can. I’m making up for lost time!” She also spends as much time as she can with her three children and their families, cooking family meals and retreating to their lake house for family events and holidays together. Her graduate experience at U-M shaped her career in that the reputation of the University of Michigan most likely helped her find a university job. Yildiz says, “From that point of view, it is very important to go to a very reputable university. That’s the first thing people will see. That and who your advisor is. Afterwards, what you do individually is what matters. From then on, you shape your career or success.” And indeed, Yildiz has shown just how very successful you can be.
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!
Tong-Soon Kwak It would hardly be a stretch to say organ music runs in Tong-Soon Kwak’s blood. The daughter of Sang-Soo Kwak, a famed conductor, organist, and music professor in South Korea, Kwak first studied the instrument that would come to dominate her artistic and professional life under his tutelage at Yonsei University. Upon receiving a Fulbright Scholarship in 1973, Kwak brought her talents across the world to U-M, where she received her master of music degree in organ performance from the U-M School of Music, Theater, and Dance (SMTD). Her U-M journey had only just begun, however. In 1974, Kwak became a recipient of the Barbour Scholarship, granting her the full financial support she needed to begin her doctoral program at SMTD. One of the oldest and most prestigious awards granted by U-M, the Barbour Scholarship was established by Levi Lewis Barbour in 1917 and is awarded annually to women of the highest academic and professional caliber from Asia and the Middle-East. Kwak studied under Marilyn Mason, an SMTD professor and internationally renowned organist who holds the record for longest-serving U-M faculty member at 66 years. Her connection to Mason ran deeper, however—it was during these years that Kwak met and married, Sung-In Chang, who was a student of Mason’s husband, U-M Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Professor Richard K. Brown. Mason herself played the organ at Kwak and Chang’s 1976 wedding. She received her doctor of musical arts in organ performance in 1981. After a few years in Toledo and Chicago, Kwak returned to South Korea with her husband and followed in her father’s footsteps, becoming a professor in the School of Music at Yonsei University. Her love of the organ permeated every aspect of her life, as she also served as president of the Korean Association of Organists, director of the Church Music Research Society of Korea, director of the Music Research Institute at Yonsei University, and as organist for Yonsei University’s Luce Chapel. While her career has taken her from one side of the world to the other—serving on the jury for many prestigious international organ competitions around the world and performing widely throughout South Korea and the United States, as well as across Europe and Asia—she has always found herself pulled back to Ann Arbor. In 1999, she was invited by SMTD to play at the annual Organ Conference at Hill Auditorium, and again in 2003 when she performed an organ recital on the Marilyn Mason Organ, built in honor of her mentor. Kwak retired from Yonsei University’s active faculty in 2013, but her zeal for music remains unabated. In 2017, her family donated an organ in the same style as U-M’s Marilyn Mason Organ to the Luce Chapel in memory of her father, and she runs a YouTube channel called Musician K, where she uploads concert footage from both her own and her father’s performances.
