1. Keynote lecture to be delivered on May 14 at the National Science
Foundation in Observance of the 2008 National Asian American Heritage
Month in Washington D.C.國科會亞裔節慶典致辭
My Life Journey - Connecting the Dots 我的生涯與回顧
By W. F. Chen 陳惠發
I am honored to be with you today to observe the 2008 National Asian
American Heritage Month at one of the most prestigious government
agencies in charge of our nation’s science and engineering research and
education programs. I have benefited much from your continuing supports
during my 40-year academic career in America.
I am amongst the first generation of immigrants from Taiwan to achieve my
American dream. My education has had a profound effect on my career and
achievements.
I am grateful to quote from the current issue of Modern Steel Construction, a
book review by Professor Ted Galambos, a giant in structural steel
profession, on my work (April, 2008). He said “Professor Wai-Fah Chen is
one of the major figures in the history of modern civil engineering…Many of
the results of his research have found their way into several
specifications....” Perhaps you might be interested in knowing how I
reached this career high.
So, today I want to tell you the stories about three universities where I
received my education: one in Taiwan, and two in America. How each of
these institutions affected my career and life in unexpected ways. They are
all simple stories. No big deal. But looking back after more than 40 years, I
can now connect the dots and see how my career, life and destiny were
changed by these encounters.
NCKU – My Gateway to Purdue 從成大到普渡
My first story is about the National Cheng-Kung University (NCKU) in
Tainan, a southern city of Taiwan, an engineering college. The original
name of the university was called Tainan Institute of Technology; but

2. changed to NCKU in 1955 when I entered the university as a freshman civil
engineering student.
Truth be told, this was not my first choice. My first choice was the National
Taiwan University in Taipei. I had to leave home and move to Tainan to
live in a dormitory. I chose civil engineering as my career for the wrong
reason; the sole reason was because my two elder brothers were already in
electrical engineering. I wanted to be different from my siblings and I never
liked chemical engineering. So by process of elimination, civil engineering
seemed to be a good choice.
At the time, Taiwan was at a cross road; land reform and economic
development were the focus of the government, a top priority for the regime
survival. With the infusion of American aids, education reform followed;
and higher education became very much Americanized.
Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana was selected as the counterpart
by the US State Department for NCKU. Purdue served as our role model for
curriculum reform, teacher training, and reeducation. Many of our existing
faculties were sent to Purdue for advance degrees. Several Purdue faculty
members came to NCKU to teach a variety of courses and guided the top
administrators for the university system’s reform.
Those days, we used for the first time the original English textbooks as our
official textbooks. Since the University had only a few original books from
overseas, they were very expensive. The University set aside a room for us
to read these "original English books" in the library. Later, these original
textbooks were reprinted in Taiwan at an affordable price.
Several of my classes were also taught directly by Purdue professors. There
were good interactions between us. It was a struggle, however, for all of us
to learn to read, write, and understand English quickly since we were not
prepared at all for such a drastic change.
This turned out to be a blessing for many of us who came to the US later for
advanced degrees. As a result of this relationship, I had a deep impression
of Purdue and I also had known about its great engineering school in the US
since my undergraduate years. Who could predict that 20 years later, I
would become a faculty member at Purdue, would be promoted steadily to
the Head of Structural Engineering in 1980, and would become the first
George E. Goodwin Distinguished Professor in the School of Civil
Engineering ever in 1992?

3. Of course, you can’t connect the dots by looking forward; you can only
connect them by looking backward.
If I had not attended NCKU, I would not have lived away from home and
become more independent. That experience helped me adjust more quickly
to my new life in America. If I had not attended NCKU, I would not have
had the opportunity to be exposed to English teaching and to the American
educational system in my early years. In addition, I might not have had the
23-year wonderful academic life in West Lafayette to build up my career
and raise my family. West Lafayette was a small college town and an ideal
place to raise a family.
Lehigh – Keeping Things Simple to be Useful in Practice 學以致用
My second story is about my selection of graduate schools in America and
my academic career at Lehigh.
My dream universities in America were Cornell and Stanford. I received a
scholarship from Stanford for my graduate studies but the stipend was not
enough to survive. So, I had no choice but to take an assistantship from
Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA where the second largest American
steel company was located. It was a painful decision but it turned out to be a
blessing.
At the time, Lehigh’s structural engineering group was well focused on the
development of a new steel design method called “plastic design,” replacing
the century-old method of “allowable stress design.” It was a revolutionary
concept pioneered at Cambridge University in the UK during WWII.
Lehigh’s Fritz Laboratory had the world’s largest testing machine and the
lab worked closely with major US steel companies to develop new methods
for steel building design.
I participated in the full-scale testing of several steel structures. The new
method was later adopted by the American Specifications for steel
construction and quickly became a worldwide standard. The structural
group became world famous in steel construction. Finally, I received my
M.S. degree there.

4. As my study at Lehigh came to an end, I received an offer from Cornell
University to continue steel research for my Ph.D. study. It was a dream-
come-true; however, I was attracted to Brown University in Providence, RI
for its highly theoretical work in solid mechanics. Tired of experimental
work at Lehigh? Perhaps.
The subject of “solid mechanics” sounded sexy, mathematical, and
intellectually challenging. It was a very hot subject at the time. It may sound
strange now but that’s the way it was at the time. In today’s terminology, it
is equivalent to the topic of “nano-material” or “bio-material”.
That was how I chose Brown University for my Ph.D. degree. Who could
predict that, three years later, I would return to Lehigh to become a faculty
member, and apply the exotic plasticity theory and its daring applications to
geotechnical engineering materials?
At Lehigh, I was lucky to work with a steel guru, Lynn Beedle, in Fritz Lab.
He was truly dedicated to Fritz Lab and put his whole effort into it. He
pushed his students and junior colleagues to do the best they could. He had
a passion for promoting Lehigh’s reputation while maintaining contacts and
relationships with his former colleagues and students over many years.
He remembered my birthday and sent me congratulation cards on a regular
basis. He helped almost everyone improve their presentations and showed
us how to prepare better slides. I learned a lot from his preaching and his
practice. He was a perfectionist and left nothing to chances.
Many of Lehigh’s faculty members at the time were recruited by Beedle.
They came to Lehigh because of him and worked under him. He was a
frequent international traveler and was a friend to everyone he came in
contact with. The group of faculty and graduate students at Fritz Lab was
quite international and Fritz Lab became the Mecca of steel research
attracting top talents around the world. It was a fun-filled period.
A good number of Beedle’s former students were elected to the National
Academy of Engineering in later years. Most of them are now leaders of
steel research in Europe, Australia, Japan, as well as North America. It was
indeed a much diversified place to do world-class research.

5. He was a firm believer that a true fulfillment of engineering research and
education was “a place in practice.” This conviction has been deeply rooted
in the minds of graduates from Fritz Lab at Lehigh. It has had a profound
effect on my research and teaching – keep things simple to be useful in
engineering practice.
In my career over the last 40 years, I have been following this principle –
keep things simple. I have built a reputation for developing simple solutions.
It has been a wonderful experience and rewarding career for me. My
experience in full scale testing at Fritz Lab, Lynn Beedle’s persistence in “a
place in practice”, and my mechanics background from Brown, all
contributed to my practice of this principle.
I am sure my journey would have been different if I had not had all these
experiences. These experiences have become a part of me and this principle
has never let me down. It has made all the difference in my academic career.
Brown – Becoming an Engineering Scientist and a Writer 格物致知致
書
My third story is about my engineering science education from Brown
University.
My specialty is in the areas of structural engineering and geo-mechanics.
My academic career has been with the traditional field of structural
engineering in the department of civil engineering at Lehigh University (10
years), Purdue University (23 years), and most recently the University of
Hawaii (more than 7 years).
These universities provide a traditional engineering technology education to
prepare their graduates in engineering practice. Or simply put, their
graduates are trained as professional engineers.
On the other hand, structural engineering and geo-mechanics are branches of
applied mechanics. Brown, similar to Harvard and Cal Tech, provides
engineering science education to prepare their graduates in the area of
research and development.
In other words, the engineering science education and training are more
suitable for the academic world and research jobs. Thus, the graduates from
Brown are really engineering scientists, rather than professional engineers.

6. So, I am fortunate to have a mixture of both engineering technology and
engineering science education – from theory to practice.
At Brown, I was indeed fortunate to work under an engineering science
guru, Daniel Drucker. One of Drucker’s most prestigious honors was given
by a U.S. President - the National Medal of Science.
As his doctoral student, I was deeply impressed by his wide range of
interests in properties of materials, structural mechanics, photo-elasticity,
material science, and soil mechanics. It was no accident that my life-long
career also involves three similar areas of interaction: mechanics, materials
and computing.
Looking back on Drucker’s teaching, several memorable events come to
mind immediately. Let me give you two examples.
The first one was that he set a high bar for a graduate teaching.
I still remember vividly at the opening session of Drucker’s beginning class
on “Plasticity” which I took during my first semester at Brown more than 40
years ago - he pointed out that the materials in technical reports were at least
one year old, materials in technical papers were two to three years old,
textbook materials were at least five years old. Accordingly, there was no
point for him to present these old materials in class since we could all read
these for ourselves.
Instead, he expected that we would spend our time reading the textbook and
listing all the mistakes and incorrect concepts we found in our class notes
and submitting the notebooks by the end of the semester as part of our grade.
I was shocked since I fully expected to learn the theories from his class
presentation, not by reading on my own.
The second example is about technical writing.
When I started to write a paper with him, he insisted that I draft an abstract
first and then the conclusions from which the table of contents would
support the conclusions. His English writing was very elegant and concise
and he seldom wrote a long reference letter, mostly just a few paragraphs on

7. his observations of strengths and achievements. This left a deep impression
on me.
You need to keep your writing concise and to the points. Technical writing
is not just about English. It is about how you organize it, present it, and
deliver it effectively. This approach has helped me write more than 20
books and nearly 500 papers, and it has never let me down.
Concluding Remarks – A Life Journey 回顧與展望
Now I realize that everything in a lifetime is a journey. So I say to each of
you, your professional career that’s ahead of you is a journey. There is no
end destination. You need to continue to learn, to grow, to be flexible. And
with that, I believe that you will find your career exciting, invigorating,
challenging, and everything that you want it to be.
America is the land of immigrants and opportunities. She accepts and
absorbs talents from all over the world. I was born during the Sino-Japan
War and raised in Taiwan during the Civil War. It was a challenging time for
my generation. I came to America as a graduate student. I deeply
appreciated the American values: freedom, democracy, and market economy.
I am proud to say that I have achieved my American dream.
If there is any great secret to success in life, it lies in the ability to learn your
past experiences and to absorb other people’s lessons. I hope the following
lessons I have learned will help you along your life journey and to also
achieve your American dream:
1. If you do what you love to do, you will be successful.
2. You must be a life-long learner in this information technology age.
3. You must be flexible in your career choice to be successful.
4. Keep things simple for your work to be useful in practice.
As an Asian American, I came to America at a more challenging time, but
that no longer exists for you today. Make the best out of it now and connect
your dots later.
Thank you all very much. 謝謝大家