Advisory Board

Da Hsuan Feng, Ph.D.

Prominent physicist who has made numerous contributions—not only in many scientific areas but also in international affairs, government service, entrepreneurship and public education. After receiving his doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Feng was a United Kingdom Science Research Council fellow at the Department of Theoretical Physics at the University of Manchester, and then joined the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Nuclear Studies as a Senior Scientist. In 1976, he joined the Physics Department of Drexel University, where he became the M. Russell Wehr Chair Professor of Physics. Dr. Feng took a leave of absence from Drexel in 1998 to serve as Vice President and HUBS (Hospitals, Universities, Businesses and Schools) General Manager of Science Applications International Corporation, a high-technology, multinational Fortune 500 company with 41,000 employees. In December 2000, he joined the University of Texas at Dallas, where he now serves as Professor of Physics and Special Assistant to the President for Global Strategies and International Relations. In addition to theoretical physics, Dr. Feng’s scientific expertise extends to mathematical physics, nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics, quantum optics, fundamental issues of quantum mechanics, network architecture and computational physics. He has served as a consultant to the theoretical physics groups at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the United Kingdom’s Daresbury Laboratory.

Speech given at the 2008 Aurora Breast MRI Society Annual Meeting
Thank you so much for inviting me to speak to you at your annual meeting here in sunny Newport Beach, California. Since members of the Society consist of distinguished radiologists, breast surgeons and medical technologists all across the United States, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard University to the University of California Irvine School of Medicine, and from Italy to Taiwan, this is indeed a great honor for both myself and for the University I represent, the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan.
Continue reading Dr. Feng’s speech

Aaron Ciechanover, M.D., PhD

A Distinguished Research Professor of Biochemistry in the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. Professor Ciechanover received his Doctor’s degree in medicine in 1975 at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in biology in 1982 at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Haifa. Professor Ciechanover was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Avram Hershko, his Ph.D. advisor, and Irwin Rose, their collaborator (at that time in the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia) for their discovery of the ubiquitin system for intracellular protein degradation. In 2000, Prof. Ciechanover was awarded the prestigious Albert Lasker Prize for Basic Medical Research.  Ciechanover also is a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

Russell A. Hulse, PhD

Dr. Russell A. Hulse was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for his groundbreaking discovery of the first “binary pulsar”—a celestial system in which two pulsars (rapidly spinning neutron stars) orbit each other. (Pulsars get their name from the regular, pulsating radio signals they emit.) Dr. Hulse’s finding has had a major impact on astrophysics and gravitational physics research, and ranks as one of the top scientific achievements of the 20th century.

Dr. Hulse received his B.S. degree in Physics from The Cooper Union in New York and a Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1975. While at the University of Massachusetts, Dr. Hulse was approached by Dr. Joseph Taylor about doing pulsar research for his thesis.

Using the large radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the two scientists discovered dozens of previously unknown pulsars. But after eight months of observation, Dr. Hulse reported to Dr. Taylor (who would be the co-recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize) that a particular newly discovered pulsar with the name 1913 + 16 (the name being derived from its celestial coordinates) had irregularities in the timing of its radio pulses, and that these irregularities must be occurring because this pulsar is locked in a tight orbit with a companion star.

This 1974 discovery provided a unique opportunity for testing and confirming aspects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity—in particular, the prediction that massive objects accelerating at a high rate emit a new kind of radiation known as gravitational radiation.

In 1977, Dr. Hulse switched from studying astrophysics to controlled thermonuclear fusion research and joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University. Dr. Hulse recently retired as a principal research physicist after 30 years at the Princeton laboratory. He is now a Regental professor and Associate Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at the University of Texas at Dallas and a member of the Board of Directors at Battelle, a global science and technology company with $3 billion in annual revenue.

http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/hulse.html

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1993/press.html

Lt. Gen. Ronald R. Blanck, D.O. (U.S. Army, retired)

Both a highly decorated Army officer and university educator and president. Dr. Blanck received a B.S. degree from Juniata College, a D.O. degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1967 and later became board-certified in Internal Medicine. He began his military career in 1968 as a medical officer and battalion surgeon in Vietnam, and retired 32 years later as the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army. While serving as Army Surgeon General, Dr. Blanck was also commander of the U.S. Army Medical Command—a position in which he oversaw more than 46,000 military personnel and 26,000 civilian employees throughout the world. Dr. Blanck’s numerous military honors include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and the Meritorious Service and Army Commendation Medals. Following his retirement from the Army in 2000, Dr. Blanck became president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. There hesupervised a growing academic health center that includes the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of Public Health and the School of Health Professions. Dr. Blanck retired from the University of North Texas in 2006 and now serves as partner and vice chairman of Martin, Blanck & Associates, a leading healthcare consulting firm serving the private sector and the Federal government.

Major General Nancy R. Adams, MSN (U.S. Army, retired)

Retired U.S. Army Veteran that has in the course of her long and distinguished military career become one of the most important healthcare providers within the Department of Defense. In doing so, she has gained valuable clinical and management experience in dealing with large and complex government healthcare systems. Major General Adams earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Cornell University, New York Hospital School of Nursing and a Master of Science degree in Nursing from the Catholic University of America. Her 35-year career in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) began in 1968, when she received her commission in the Corps. Her overseas assignments included service in West Germany and Korea. In 1991, Major General Adams was promoted to ANC Chief. Over the next four years, she guided the ANC through the turbulent period of post-Cold War reorganization and downsizing while simultaneously improving Army nursing practice and organizational structure for optimal functioning in the 21st century. Major General Adams’ later career included numerous prestigious appointments, including: United States Army Pacific Surgeon; commanding general of Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, a 266-bed tertiary care medical center with a staff of 3,000 and a $245 million annual budget; and Commander of the Pacific Regional Medical Command—the first woman to lead this command. In 1998, she became the first Army nurse to be promoted to Major General. Major General Adams currently serves as senior partner for Martin, Blanck & Associates, a healthcare consulting firm. She is the firm’s leading expert on federal health acquisition policies and procedures.

Paul Ching-Wu Chu, PhD

Dr. Paul Ching-Wu Chu has gained worldwide renown for his discoveries in superconductivity—the cornerstone of the MRI technology used in Aurora breast-imaging systems. He is currently the President of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology—one of the fastest growing research universities in the Pacific Rim—and also serves as T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science, Professor of Physics and Executive Director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston.

Professor Chu received his B.S. degree in physics from Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan, his M.S. degree in physics from Fordham University in New York, and his Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of California at San Diego.

Following two years of research at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, Dr. Chu was appointed Assistant Professor of Physics at Cleveland State University in 1970, where he was promoted to Professor of Physics in 1975. He joined the University of Houston as Professor of Physics in 1979.

At the University of Houston, Dr. Chu carried out research on superconductivity, the phenomenon in which electrical resistance in certain materials completely disappears at extremely low temperatures. In 1987, he and his team made an epic breakthrough: Using a special ceramic material, they achieved stable superconductivity at a relatively high temperature (above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen).

This finding ushered in the age of high-temperature superconductivity, which has made commercial use of superconductivity much more feasible. Dr. Chu’s discovery has been called one of the most significant advances in all of modern physics. He has been honored with some of the world’s most prestigious scientific awards including the U.S. National Medal of Science, the Bernd Matthias Prize, and John Fritz Medal, which he shares with such luminaries as Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and Enrico Fermi.

http://www.ust.hk/~webopa/news/2000_News/news1120.html

http://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.cfm?recip_id=77