焦點人物: Chang-lin Tien 田長霖

(The following text is an excerpt from the book Chinese Americans in Irvine 1971-2021.)

In the United States, for ethnic minorities, especially ethnic Asians, because of differences in birth place, mother tongue and cultural background, it is extremely difficult to break into the mainstream, particularly into a leading role.

On February 15, 1990, Chang-lin Tien was named Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. He was the first Asian to be appointed leader of a top university in the U.S. who was not born in the U.S., nor received his undergraduate education in this country.

Many well-known scholars agree that, from the viewpoint of Asian Americans, this attainment was more significant than winning the Nobel Prize. The latter is recognition by one’s professional peers, but the former is recognition of one’s academic achievements and abilities on all levels in the U.S., as well as the elite in one’s field, as “the elite among elites.” The influence of a university president affects several generations. Chang-lin Tien established a model, to be followed by other ethnic minorities in being appointed presidents of well-known universities.

Chancellor Tien was born in Wuhan, China, in 1935, of a scholarly family. His grandfather qualified as a scholar in the Imperial Examination during the late Qing
Dynasty. His father graduated from Beijing University with a physics degree and served the Taiwan Provincial Government in Financial Management. From his early days, Chang-lin showed himself to be intelligent, active and outgoing, a defender of fair play, fond of sports, especially basketball. At 5’6”, he was at a slight disadvantage on the basketball court, but he compensated for it by rigorous training in speed and skill to finally attain an important position on his team.

The training was later to manifest itself in the way he met future competition—his total dedication, hard work and persistence as well as team spirit.
In 1955, twenty-year-old Chang-lin Tien graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Department of National Taiwan University, passing the National Excellence Examination as the top scorer. The following year, he received a scholarship to the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Kentucky, Louisville, where he received his M.S. within a year. Twenty months later, he received his Ph.D. from Princeton University. In 1959, aged 24, he was hired by U.C. Berkeley, as an Acting Assistant Professor. Although he spoke an accented English, in a campus-wide balloting three years later, he was voted winner of the “Best Teaching Award.” In the several years following, he became chair of the department of thermal engineering and mechanical engineering as well as Vice Chancellor, was elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, as dean of Thermal Transfer in the world.

In 1988, he was appointed Executive Vice Chancellor of University of California, Irvine. Two years later, he was to accept an even greater challenge, as Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, bringing his career to a new height.

Chancellor Tien’s position was always that the university serves the public and share resources. It must interact with society. During his time in Irvine, on the one hand he was planning the implementation of academic direction; on the other, integration into the community. He lived in the vicinity of the university, so it was easy for him to communicate with the faculty, students and residents in the community.

He was deeply concerned with the scholarship, culture and politics on both sides of the Taiwan Straits. He organized a Club of One Hundred comprising Chinese members from academia, culture, politics, and business, to relentlessly promote Sino-American scholarly exchange.

He always retained a child’s purity of spirit in honestly criticizing the political situation.
I was very honored, during their sojourn in Irvine, to be the family dentist for Chancellor and Mrs. Tien. He was easily approachable and easy to talk to. Everyone loved to come to them. He often attended the activities in the Chinese community, interacted well, and was welcomed by everyone. When news came of his departure from Irvine, everyone was sad to see him go, and decided to send him off with best wishes for the next chapter of his life. I gladly agreed to be co-chair of the farewell committee.

Almost one thousand people came to the farewell party, all formally dressed to show their respect, including community members, UCI chancellor, UC Regents, as well as CA Secretary of State and other politicians. In the preparatory stage, Co-Chair Shu-Yung Chen and Terry Lee, who were responsible for the day’s program, arranged for a surprise for Chancellor Tien. For the night’s event, we invited his schoolmates from college and graduate school, UCI professors, and Ph.D. candidates under his direction, to tell anecdotes from his youth onward, so that everyone could arrive at a deeper understanding of Chancellor Tien, known to everyone as unassuming and open, always smiling, willing to listen to different opinions, ever full of energy and vitality. His motto was, “Treat everyone with sincerity; deal with all tasks with diligence.” This is the picture that others have of him.

His attitude toward scholarship and research is extremely serious, in accordance with the saying by, L. M.K. Boelter, founder of the Heat Transfer discipline: “In
dealing with people, you can think in terms of moderation (as advocated by the Confucian Golden Mean); but in research, you must always go to extremes in both direction and area to explore.” (Written by Don Niu/English translation by Sally Feng)

在美國，少數族裔，尤其是亞裔，因為出生地、母語及文化背景的差異，在上個世紀，想要打入主流，非常艱難，遑論扮演領導的地位。
1990 年 2 月 15 日，田長霖被選為柏克萊加大校長，成為非美國出生、未在美國受大學教育，授命領導美國頂尖大學的首位亞裔人士。許多著名學者都一致認為，對亞裔而言，重要性更甚於獲得諾貝爾獎。

後者是專業的認可，前者是學識與能力必須被美國各個階層、領域的菁英認同，是菁英中的菁英。頂尖大學校長造成的影響，是幾個世代。田長霖創下典範，其後也陸續有其他族裔出任名校校長。

田校長 1935 年出生於中國湖北的武漢，書香世家，祖父是清末舉人，父親畢業於北京大學物理系，曾在台灣省政府從事財政管理工作。田長霖自幼聰敏，活潑外向，好打抱不平。喜歡運動，特別是籃球。五呎六吋的身高，在籃球場上有些吃虧，他苦練速度和球技，彌補不足，終在球隊中佔有重要地位，更鍛鍊出他在競爭中，全力以赴、堅苦奮鬥的毅力，及團隊合作的精神。

1955 年，二十歲的田長霖從台大機械系畢業，通過高考優等第一名。隔年取得獎學金，入美國肯塔基州路易維爾大學機械系，一年後拿到碩士，二十個月後，取得普林斯頓大學博士學位。1959 年，二十四歲的他受聘於柏克萊加大，任代理助理教授。雖然講一口外國口音的英文，三年後仍獲全校票選「最佳教授獎」 。接下來幾年，他在加大擔任熱系統工程系和機械工程系主任，及副校長，並榮膺美國工程科學院院士，是世界傳熱學的泰斗。

1988 年，他擔任爾灣加大執行副校長，兩年後，接受更艱鉅的挑戰，成為柏克萊加大校長，職業生涯達到另一個高峰。
田校長一向主張，大學本身要做公共服務和資源分享，更要與社會互動。他在爾灣這段時間，一方面落實學術前景規劃，一方面積極融入社區，住家在學校附近，方便和教授、學生及社區人士溝通。

他非常關心海峽兩岸的學術、文化和政治。曾和學術界、文化界、政界、商界的華人共同創立了百人會，對促進中美學術交流不遺餘力。他永遠保持赤子之心，坦誠批判政治情勢。我很榮幸在田長霖服務爾灣加大時，擔任他們夫婦的家庭牙醫。他平易近人又健談，大家都很喜歡和他們接近。當時他經常出席社區華人的活動，互動良好，深受歡迎。一聽到他要離開爾灣，大家依依不捨，決定為他送行並祝賀他展開新的一頁。我也欣然接受歡送會的共同主席。

田長霖歡送晚會參加人數近千，全體赴宴人士穿著正式禮服盛裝出席，以示敬意，包括各界社區人士，爾灣加大校長、加州大學校董，以及州務卿在內的政界人士。
在籌備過程中，我和另外一位共同主席蕭樹蓉及節目負責人陳淑妍，安排了令田校長大為吃驚的一段。當晚，我們邀請了他在大學、硏究所時期的同學，爾灣加大教授，及他正在指導的博士研究生數人，娓娓道出他從年輕以來，做人處事的㸃㸃滴滴小故事。從大家口裡，更多一層了解到，他為人謙和開朗，笑容滿面，樂於傾聽不同的意見，永遠精力充沛，生氣勃勃。「真誠待人，勤奮做事」是他的自我期許，也是他人眼中的寫照。

他治學和做研究的態度非常嚴謹，師承熱傳學開山祖師貝爾特 L.M.K. Boelter 的理念：「做人時，思想可以中庸；做研究時，方向和領域永遠要走極端。」
（牛鐵軍撰文／提供照片）