Stony Brook University Student Wins the First Dr. Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship
October 13, 2005
UPTON, NY - Yuanzhi Tang, a graduate student in the Department of Geosciences at Stony Brook University (SBU), has won the first annual Dr. Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship. The Asian Pacific American Association (APAA) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory initiated the scholarship, which consists of $1,000 and a plaque, to honor the late distinguished Brookhaven Lab scientist for which it is named.
Mow Shiah Lin began his career at Brookhaven Lab in 1975 as a postdoctoral fellow and advanced to co-lead a research team working with an environmental remediation company to use selected bacteria to convert toxic oil wastes, such as used motor oils, into useful products. In 2001, Lin shared the R&D 100 Award, given by R&D Magazine to the top 100 technological achievements of the year, for a technology to recover silica from geothermal brine. Lin died suddenly due to a brain aneurysm at the height of his career in 2003, and his fellow employees, friends, and family contributed funds to establish the scholarship.
In honor of Lin's research, achievements, and inventions, the scholarship will be granted annually to an Asian immigrant with a student visa who is matriculating toward a graduate degree at an accredited institution of higher education in environmental science, biology, or chemistry, in remembrance of the manner in which Lin began his career.
Tang's research at SBU involves the use of various analytic techniques - including x-ray imaging at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source - to study the mechanisms of the reaction of contaminants in natural environments, especially reactions at the interfaces of minerals and water.
Joining Tang (fifth from left) in the photo are: (from left) Susan Eng Wong, co-coordinator, APAA; Thomas Butcher, Brookhaven Lab scientist and head of the scholarship selection committee; Satoshi Ozaki, Brookhaven Lab scientist/administrator and APAA advisor; Beth Y. Lin, APAA co-coordinator and widow of Mow Shiah Lin; Lucinda Lin, daughter of Beth and Mow Shiah Lin; Richard J. Reeder, Director, SBU Center for Environmental Molecular Sciences and thesis advisor for Tang; Samantha Lin Alvarado, daughter of Beth and Mow Shiah Lin; Marie Van Buren, member of the APAA scholarship committee, and (front, center) Josephine Alvarado, granddaughter of Beth and Mow Shiah Lin.
2005-10382 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
