 Aloha. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German or Turkish Japanese. But anyone from any corner of the earth come to the United States and become an American. Welcome back to A Nation of Immigrants, a talk show program featuring the lives of immigrants, knowledge, diversity, and inclusion. Created by Singtank, Hawaii, and Kingsfield Law Office. We invite renowned immigrants to discover life stories, immigration adventures, and their contribution to the United States. Today's guest is our good friend, Professor Jianping Wang from the University of Minnesota. Welcome, Professor. Thank you, Chang. Yeah, good with you. Well, we are thrilled to have you, and we don't have a lot of scientists on our show, and you are such a prominent scientist. You have a very long career and extremely accomplished scholarship and education, and I was completely astonished when I read your bio. But now I'm going to offer our audience a shorter version of your bio, and please correct me if I pronounce any of the words wrong, because I'm a lawyer, and some of these STEM vocabulary is quite new to me. No problem. Yeah, great honor with you and with this program. Yeah. Thank you, Professor. Professor Wang, Jianping Wang is a distinguished McKnight University Professor and Robert Hartman Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Professor Wang is the inventor of the Rear Earth three-iron nitrate magnet, several magnetic reporting media and spin-tronic devices for memory and computing applications, and a high-moment magnet nanoparticle, and a large aerial magnetic biosensor for medicine applications. Those are sounds extremely sophisticated, but honestly, Professor, I have no idea what are they, and you may perhaps we can have your explanation a little bit later. Professor Wang, you received an ISIC Technical Achievement Award in 2006 for the Demonstration of the Exchange-Coupled Composite Magnetic Media. You received a 2019 Technical Excellence Award from the Semiconductor Research Corporation. Innovations and discoveries in nanomagnetic and novel materials that accelerated the production of magnetic random-access memory. You host 72 U.S. patents that have been licensed to six companies. You are the co-founder of Nitrogen Magnetic Inc, Zepto Life Technology LLC, and Universal Magnetic Systems C. Professor Wang has published more than 400 articles and seven book chapters. Professor Wang was the recipient of the outstanding Professor Award for his contribution to undergraduate teaching in 2010. Professor Wang graduated 37 PhD students and trained 13 post-torial fellows after he joined the University of Minnesota. Professor Wang has been elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2022. Professor Wang is also a fellow of IEEE and APS, American Physical Sciences. This is just a very condensed shorter version of a bio. Professor Wang has to admit this is absolutely astonishing, but I want to ask you, you have four identities. You have your professor, each year the advisor obviously, and you are an inventor, and you have 72 patents, and you are also entrepreneurial, and you have three companies under your name, and you are also an engineer. So which identity you think is most important to you? Yeah. First, thank you so much, Dr. Chang Wang, and I thank the Technic Support like Mark for putting me on this program. It's a great honor to be with the audience and all the people. Yeah, I'll answer your question. It's hard to see that. I really value my role, if I really can do something along that line, even better, that is as an educator, as a professor I can get a chance to train and teach and pass down my personal experience to the young students, especially college students, and then come to the PhD research students. So that's why I'm one of the most. Thank you. We are very lucky to have you here at the university. I have so many questions I want to ask you. And first of foremost, at some point you worked for Chinese Academy of Science and Institute of Physics. That is the same institute my father worked. So by your serendipity, now I'm basically interviewing my father's colleague, and that I consider that it's dream honor and privilege. Thank you again to be on the show. Now we want to talk about your American journey. You came to the United States from Singapore. This is really rare because most people go to Singapore, probably, or settle there. It's one of the most loveable cities, a country in the world, extremely beautiful, extremely open. And so may I ask why did you move from Singapore to Minnesota? Yeah, that's definitely a big question. And this big decision we made. Look at it weather-wise also, people will be surprised to move from a very warm and kind of city country to Minnesota, people scared by winter. But I and my family, we made that decision. It's not large and light. And then we really value or appreciate all the good experience in Singapore, the seven years. We met so many wonderful people. And then the life there is also wonderful. By the end of the day, the opportunity show up. Minnesota has this techy position that you could people. And my background matched well. I didn't know that until I talked to Professor Jack Judy and Rendo Victoro and a couple of other colleagues later on who were at the University of Minnesota. And yeah, it really filled my background fit well. And then I came here for an interview and then talked to people around feel, oh, yeah, here we have a nice people and also Minnesota is very famous on magnetic research. Oh, we have a good team here and also have industry and also education. So one word I can summarize the opportunity, yeah, that make me but although there's a risk, there's uncertainty. Move from very stabilized life, you know, in Singapore and to someplace again to start from scratch. Yeah. Yeah, but I think it's good. Yeah, so it's a wonderful experience and opportunity for me, for my family, for my kids, I think it's all well. Yeah. Thank you very much. I think you made the right decision. And I mean, so that couldn't be happier to have you here. And which year was that? 2001? 2002. Yeah. Yeah, these are one year earlier than I moved to Minnesota. I came here in 2003. So you'll be in the United States about 20 years. And what's your, well, maybe this question a little bit of mood, but what what excites you about means Minnesota or in the United States, generally speaking? I feel the one words I can summarize is hard to, you know, summarizing symbol way, but if just need pick up one word, I think is you can buy a lot of things, you know, there's no much boundary in term of you explore new things. Yeah. That I feel very, very exciting. Although in Singapore, I can do a lot of good things. That's true. You know, I lead a bigger group and I got a lot of support from government, from university and, you know, we do a lot of good thing for, you know, university and also industry there. But still you want to explore new things. You really need to have certain environment that you feel more encouraged. There's a lot of resource around and as long as you try, there's no limit. And I feel that part is more exciting. Yeah. Yeah, there's 20 years. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. What you said just to remind me President Joe Biden's famous quote, that if I can summarize the United States into one word, possibility. There's just so much tremendous possibilities in this country on the land of free and which many other countries cannot and it's just absolutely stunning unlimited potential here in the United States. You are a community leader. You know, I came to know you through your work and leadership in the Chinese-American community. And I'm still grateful for your leadership and in the Chinese-American community and also your help and mentoring to the younger generation. So what are you most proudest thing you have done in Minnesota and for the community? I know last time we talked about your leadership during the COVID and but I want to know more about your achievements in the Chinese-American community. Yeah, Chang, so I would like to say I haven't done too much. Yeah, so I really feel like I always can do more. I have very busy teaching schedule, research schedule, and then a lot of new things always come up and need to pay attention to in terms of, you know, research and innovation. But at the same time, as you mentioned, sometimes you feel you can do something, you can help, and that's exactly maybe you refer to, you know, during the pandemic years and I feel there are certain things I can help the community, not just the Chinese-American community. I think as a community as a whole, right, because I'm part of a community around the University of Minnesota, Twin City campus. As an example, every year, you know, my wife and I, we always donate to the community through, you know, they have a fund there and then all kinds of different, different, you know, the usage of those donations, environment and the homeless, all those. We did that, you know, since we moved here every year, we feel that we are part of the community. But during the pandemic year, if you refer to the little things I have, very, very little, is I feel we need to have, you know, all the people can talk to each other and there are certain things not happening in a good way and you couldn't just blame one side, you know, and so you have to see why that happened. A lot of time is engagement, there's discussion now and also, you know, try to show, you know, you have a good wish, you really want to do the good thing and a lot of things missing around that line, especially not just from one side, you know, Chinese-American community or even the mainstream, right, the both sides need to learn from each other. So I feel my personal experience is really international and then know how to work with different group of people and that gives me an opportunity. I work with a couple of young Chinese-American and in Minnesota, we form a forum, or the May forum, May more like a May flower, you know, we really value how this country is being built. And at the same time, May is a month for this Asian-Pacific, you know, American, right, as the heritage monks. So through this forum, including we invite Dr. Chang Wang Yu as part of a panelist, we try to make engagement really happen that people talk and also we showcase how Chinese-Americans can do well and then if it's really there, you know, engaged and then also many things already happen in the past, right, like, you know, real world, real, real way of being built 150 years ago, right? A lot of people not knowing that and then we show that and also young generation now more like they're doing all those entrepreneurship is amazing. So we let them talk and then we just provide a platform. I haven't done too much, all is a panelist job. You're too humble, Professor. You're too humble. The May forum was absolutely fantastic. I was very honored to be part of it. And you are, it's true. And you're not only, you know, very active in the Chinese-American community, but your influence goes beyond the Chinese-American community to reach to the Asian-Pacific community and the university community, so the community, and the city's community as well. As a fourth generation immigrant, the immigrant and which is also a human embodiment of American dream. And may I say you have already achieved your American dream from your long bio and very. Oh, no, no, not at all. Yeah. Well, but I think you are mentoring the younger generation and there are a lot of new Chinese students, dollars and new immigrants come to the United States, come to the cities. And what advice you would give to these new immigrants and just to come here, try to pursue their American dream. Okay. Yeah. Thank you so much, yeah, it's a very kind of words you just said. But I feel my American dream is still not fully complete. It's a long way to go. And but I feel very positive, you know, it's really, really doing well, you know, in terms of everything I engaged, I involved. Yeah. So, but there's so many big names there. You know, it's just a start from the inventor like Edison, like, entrepreneur, like, you know, the first car manufacturer really make so many people benefit of a middle class bill benefit from that, his vision, right, the fault, right. And then down to the road, even the recent year, you can see, although some people like Elon Musk, some, maybe had different opinion, but still, also he said, you know, big, big, big, you know, high bar there, right. So that's many. And then like, American scientists, maybe the first American born Nobel Prize winner is a female rich are female, right. You know, I still far away to those people. I hope I can, the next 20 years, I can do something a little bit closer to that. But, you know, even with that humble experience, I still want the, there's something in the past 10, 20 years, I learned through the, you know, from Beijing to Singapore to Minnesota and also travel around the world. I can see there's so many things, the people, especially young people, they move to here, they can do much better in other place. We should bless this all, you know, really feel blessed is a golden opportunities. And number one, we shouldn't complain. You always will run into difficulty and shouldn't complain. And then you should feel this something people already work so hard to build a foundation around you, right. Otherwise, how can you have this good starting point? A lot of people forget that part, including me, I always say, you know, I came here and not just build up from square, there's so many things already been there already, like my kids, you know, went to the school here and the wonderful school, public school, without those teachers, how can you have this school, right, without the people so those schools, how can you have kids, you know, you don't need to worry too much, you know, when they go to school, right. So I think the first thing to young generation, immigrants don't complain, you have to work hard, you have to value what we already have here. Second part I would like to say is the most important, that is, what's the mindset you should have, should have. So that is, you need to try something new, you have to do something new, and using the words we call the creation, innovation, right. But it's just very simple, just try something new, and then this country really give you opportunity to try something new, and you can feel, but you still can do again, right. I'm not sure many place can be like this, this is really, really one of the best place to give you that opportunity, yeah. Yes, thank you so much, Professor. It's wonderful, wonderful advice. I will follow your advice. I'm not a person like to complain, but I think that is very important. I wish I could hear that when I was in my early 20s. You spend some time in China and spend seven years in Singapore, and now 20 years, almost 20 years in the United States. And we talk about American dream, we talk about possibility, but is there anything particular striking you the most about American is, and something you think is very unique and interesting of the United States, distinguishable from the Chinese and the Singaporean. Yeah, I think, again, there could be many answers along this line, right. So different person have different experience, right, and they may have different comments, or different, you know, feeling about what's the difference, you know, between those different countries. Yeah, as a university educator, you know, professor, and, and then also later on, I, you know, as I, you just mentioned, kind of start some entrepreneurial experience. And so, so my, my, my most, you know, strongest feeling towards to those we call the kind of freedom of trying things, right. And the freedom to try to speak, you can speak loudly, you can communicate with people, you can talk to the people. And in a way, and, you know, there is no much consequence. And then second part, I believe connect to this is, you know, is here, you do have authority, but, you know, in the academic, you have authority in a senior professor, right. But still the, you know, younger or middle age professor, or the researcher or any place. I think people feel more equal, right, more like, you know, you just do well. And then everything's good. Yeah, it's not just, you know, looks into another way, right. Yeah. So that's, I feel a little different here. Yeah. Thank you very much. That may translate what you said into legal ease. We call it eco protection. And a new process in this country is very unique is equality. And there is no normal man in this country. And there are no, there are hierarchies, but generally speaking, each human being is have individual rights. And they can live, and they can speak freely, and with dignity, and decency, which is not, you know, something we take for granted in this country, particularly the younger generation. But in many other countries, people have to fight with their blood and fear even life for that. And I think that is the America has been blessed with. Anyway, let's move to a little bit lighter topic. And what's your life like in Twin Cities? You know, I envision you have a wonderful life in Singapore, but now you're in this, we are getting cold nowadays. And what do you generally like your neighborhood in the Twin Cities? And what normally do you do after work? Obviously, you spend most of the time work, but I imagine you also have some leisure time, you volunteer for the community. And do you play basketball and ping pong, swing? And what do you do? Yeah, I'm not tall enough to play basketball. And yeah, I'm the short man. Yeah, for that way. But I play basketball when I was a college student, and I enjoyed very much because there's team sports, and they really make you engage with other people and then, you know, compete. You're doing well at that time as college. And now, you know, the first 10, 15 years, you know, moved here so much work, and we have to down in the lab and, you know, teaching. So I couldn't do too much on the sports. But in recent five, you know, five, seven years, and I got a little bit of luxury time and during the weekend now. So I can, you know, kind of play a little bit of golf, golfing. Yeah, so that's one thing. And also, I watched sports. One thing I learned is I learned from my son. So he was a high school student. When he was high school, he played, you know, football. Yeah, as an American football. American football. Yeah, no soccer. Yeah. Yeah, I learned from him. I watched, I sent him to school, you know, he played and I watched. And then I step by step learned from that. So, and I started learning to watch and I feel that's a very, very good game. Yeah, American game. Yeah, basically kind of have a leadership, kind of teamwork, balance out. And yeah, so my neighbor also, I think I feel my neighbors, they have a season ticket, you know, so Vikings game, football against the NFL. And they have season ticket. A lot of times it got my boy, that's many years back, and then you let him to watch together with their family. Yeah, so I have wonderful neighbors. I believe a lot of Minnesota people feel the same way. Always, you know, driving back home and then, you know, you slow down and talk to people around. Yeah, you feel very warm. And the same thing I try to do to many other people too. Now, my neighborhood started to change, you know, from old to the young generation again. And we try to pass down those kind of things to, you know, young generation. Absolutely. It's the way we all, we first came here that we heard the word Minnesota nice. And it's supposed to be a negative word. But the more I stay here, the more I think that is the positive. And there's a very, many other people are really, really nice. Yeah, Chan, you 100% right on that. I would like to see one more hard on Minnesota nice, right? That's one of the reason I stay here 20 years and maybe another 20 years. Yeah, yeah. And then Minnesota nice is not just the one word talk about people's character or the way they talk to the people, you know, work with people is you can put a little bigger framework that that's a spirit of Midwest of America and the Midwest part of American a little different from East and West, right? Why may I say a lot of different. Yeah, yeah. There are many, many things in common, you know, is the creation, innovation, entrepreneurial, twice since new. But there are some a little bit different people know that rush, you know, try to rush to things. And here, you know, the people already like work together. There's a good teamwork and even more like this, I have to see that I work around the travel around the US. I met a lot of people doctors, professors, you know, CEOs, and then turns out a lot of them from Midwest. And I can see a lot of common part from those people. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. And we are in the right place. We're running out of time. But I do want to ask you the final question. And very quickly, you mentioned 20 years twice, and you mentioned that you are you have plans for your for 20 years. So what do you image? It's very odd to ask a very accomplished professor this question. But what do you see yourself in 20 years? And what do you plan for the next next phase? Yeah, I think I, yeah, that's a bigger plan. But at some time, I think I start still start from small, right? I have to do step by step, you know, the big plan is my research, I really lucky and feel blessed, magnetic research, and you know, work on magnetic material device research, there's tons of applications. And it turns out in recent 10 years, and then applications really impact our society more than everyone think about that. And including environmental protection, like, you know, you don't use critical materials, and then you can build up the device. And including the we call the energy efficient computing, or memory, right, means you don't need too much energy, consume the electrical, you know, power being generated worldwide, try to low down their numbers, means in some sense, you save our mother Earth. And our research is really, really going along that line. Now, and then if we can have a certain big breakthrough down the road, I think we can help further we already have a lot, as you read out my resume, we really help a lot through the past 20 years, research at the Union Minnesota, my group and my collaborators. I think next 20 years, I feel we can do more along that line, maybe, you know, even critical, some, some single, but that's rely on the student post or the good collaborate. Yeah, we have a total confidence in your professor and your team. Thank you so much. Please save the world. Please save us from the climate change. Well, it's we're running out of time, but the water is still what a wonderful, you know, cage and that we have the you're on the show. Thank you so much, Professor Jim P. Wong, Professor scientist, innovator, inventor and entrepreneur. Thank you, Professor. Welcome. Welcome to the show. And I hope to have you back on the show again. Thank you. Thank you so much, Charles. And thank you, Mark. Yeah, for all the support. Take care. Aloha. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktecawaii.com. Mahalo.