Tien, former Berkeley chancellor and long-time member, succumbs

Chang-Lin Tien, the chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1990-97, died Oct. 29 at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Redwood City. He was 67 years old and a member of ASME for nearly 30 years.

Tien was a Fellow and an Honorary Member of ASME. He joined the Society in 1964 and was a member of the San Francisco Section. He was vice president and chair of the Basic Engineering Technical Group from 1988-90. He won the G.L. Larson Memorial Award in 1975, when he was a professor of engineering in the mechanical engineering department at UC Berkeley.

He also received the distinguished Max Jakob Award in Heat Transfer in 1981. The award is given jointly by ASME and AIChE.

In September 2000, Tien was diagnosed with a brain tumor and suffered a debilitating stroke during a diagnostic test. He never regained his health and retired from the university on June 30, 2001.

A respected leader in American higher education and an engineering scholar of international renown, Tien spent nearly his entire professional career at UC Berkeley. He was the campus's seventh chancellor and, according to UC Berkeley, was the first Asian-American to head a major research university in the United States.

For additional information about Tien, visit www.berkeley.edu/ news/media/releases/2002/10/tien.html.

 

back to news & features