(The following text is an excerpt from the book Chinese Americans in Irvine 1971-2021.)
Fred and Julia Wan moved to Southern California in 1995 when he assumed the position of Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies at
the Irvine campus of the University of California. The campus extramural research funding more than doubled under his stewardship.
Julia Wan was appointed the Director of the Center for Science & Mathematics Education at California State University (CSU) at Fullerton. In 1999, she was the
recipient of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation’s $14M Beckman@Science Initiative award for reforming K-6 science education in Orange County.
Professor Frederic Y.M. Wan
Frederic Wan, the first child of Olga Jung (張愛of Los Angeles CA and Wai-Nam Wan (溫偉南) of Saigon Vietnam, was born in 1936 in Shanghai China where his parents were waiting for an assignment from the State Department of the Chinese Government. They left for Paris when Wai-Nam was assigned as an attaché to Ambassador Dr. Wellington Koo. On the way to France, the parents entrusted Fred to his grandparents who had brought him up until he returned to the United States in 1954. Except for the period of December 1947 – April 1949 where he spent visiting his maternal grandmother in Los Angeles, Fred was educated in Chinese schools in Saigon and Cholon. In Los Angeles, Fred enrolled in Harvard Elementary School briefly, graduated from Berendo Middle School in December 1948 and attended Los Angeles High School until his return to Saigon with his grandparents in the late spring of 1949. In April 1954, Fred left Saigon for Seattle WA to finish high school. He graduated from Garfield High School in that City in 1955 and enrolled at MIT that fall semester where he majored in Mathematics.
After receiving his S.B. degree in Mathematics in June, 1959, Fred took a position as a research staff member at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. In 1960, he married Julia Y.S. Chang when she graduated from Wellesley College.
The work at the Lincoln Lab stimulated Fred’s interest in the mechanics of shell structures and prompted him to return to MIT for graduate studies, receiving his
S.M. in Mathematics in 1963 and Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1965. He then joined the Mathematics Department as an Instructor, promoted to Assistant Professor in 1967 and to Associate Professor in 1969.
In addition to theoretical mechanics, Fred has also done applied mathematics research in resource economics, neurosciences, viral dynamics and developmental biology.
His experience and strong commitment to interdisciplinary education and research interaction was probably an important factor in his appointment as the first Director of the new Institute of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1974. While in Canada, he served as member and Chair of the Committee of Pure and Applied Mathematics of NSERC (Natural Science and Engineering Research Council) of Canada, the Canadian counterpart of the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States.
In 1983, Fred was appointed the founding Chair of the new Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Washington with a leave in 1986-87 to serve as a Co-Director of the Applied Mathematics Program at NSF. He became the Associate (later Divisional) Dean of Natural and Mathematical Sciences overseeing 14 departments at University of Washington in 1988. On leave from UW in 1992-94, he was appointed the Division Director of Mathematical Sciences at NSF and became the only person to have headed the federal civilian-funding agency for research in pure and applied mathematics in both Canada and the United States.
Fred and Julia moved to Southern California in 1995 when he assumed the position of Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies at UC Irvine. The campus extramural research funding more than doubled under his stewardship. Upon returning to his regular position as Professor of Mathematics in 2000, Fred embarked on a new research direction in the field of developmental and cell biology with research support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation as well as initiating new undergraduate and graduate programs in the emerging area of mathematical and computational biology.
Upon his official retirement from UC Irvine at the end of the spring quarter 2017, he and Julia spend most of each year in a retirement community in downtown Seattle returning to sunny SoCal during the winter months.
Julia Wan
Julia Chang, born in Hong Kong and lived in Shantou, China until 1947 when her family moved to Hong Kong. Julia attended high school in Sydney, Australia and then Wellesley College in the U.S. where she received a B.A. in Physics and an M.A. in Chemistry.
She married Frederic Wan in September 1960.
Julia Wan worked in biochemistry research before deciding to go into teaching. She taught physics and chemistry at Watertown High School and was later
appointed District Science Director of the Watertown School System. While at Watertown, she did post-graduate studies concurrently and received her Ed. D. from Boston College. Julia moved to the Seattle area in 1979, first served as the District Curriculum Director at the Federal Way School District (1979 – 83) and then as the Assistant Superintendent of the Bainbridge Island School District (1983 – 92). In 1993 she and Fred went to Washington D.C. to work at the National Science Foundation (NSF) for two years as the Director of Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI) overseeing the award of $10M each to the State of AR, FL. LA, RI, CA and MA. Julia and Fred relocated to California where she was appointed the Director of the Center for Science & Mathematics Education at California State University (CSU) at Fullerton. Julia retired from CSU- Fullerton in 2002 and worked part-time until 2006. (Courtesy of Dr. Fred Wan)
Chinese Americans in Orange County hosted a welcome event for Dr. Fred Wan in 1995
橙縣華裔歡迎溫耀明（左四）博士出任爾灣加大副校長
溫氏夫婦於 1995 年移居南加州，當時溫耀明擔任爾灣加大副校長和研究院院長，在他的領導下，校外研究經費大幅提升。
張玉賢被委任為加州州立大學富勒頓分校（CSUFullerton）科學與數學教育中心主任。1999 年，她因改革橙縣 K-6 年級科學教育而獲得 Arnold and Mabel Beckman 基金會 1400 萬美元的 Beckman@科學計劃獎金。
溫耀明教授
身為長子的溫耀明先生，1936 出生在中國上海時，他的雙親（來自加州洛杉磯的張愛蓮和越南西貢的溫偉南）當時正在等待中國政府國務院的任命。當父親溫偉南被任命為大使顧維鈞博士的隨員後，他們啟程前往巴黎。在去法國的路上，父母將溫耀明託付給他的祖父母撫養，直到 1954 年前往美國。除了1947 年 12 月到 1949 年 4 月短暫去洛杉磯探望外祖母，溫耀明是在西貢和堤岸的中文學校接受教育。在洛杉磯期間，初中畢業後就讀洛杉磯高中，直到 1949年春末又隨祖父母返回西貢。1954 年 4 月，動身至西
雅圖求學並於 1955 年高中畢業，之後在秋季班進入麻省理工學院，主修數學。
1959 年 6 月在獲得數學學士學位後，溫耀明在麻省理工學院林肯實驗室擔任研究人員。1960 年，他與從衞斯理學院畢業的張玉賢女士結婚。
林肯實驗室的工作激發了溫耀明對殼結構力學的興趣，因而促使他返回麻省理工學院攻讀研究所，並在 1963 年獲得數學碩士學位，接著在 1965 年獲得數學博士學位。之後他加入數學系擔任講師，於 1967 年晉升為助理教授，1969 年晉升為副教授。
除了理論力學，溫耀明也在資源經濟學、神經科學、病毒動力學和發育生物學領域中進行應用數學的研究。他堅決致力於跨學科教育和研究互動的精神，
可能是他在 1974 年被任命為英屬哥倫比亞大學（UBC）新應用數學和統計研究所第一任所長的重要因素。他曾擔任加拿大自然科學與工程研究委員會（NSERC）純粹與應用數學委員會的成員和主席，該委員會是 NSF 的加拿大對應機構。
1983 年，溫耀明被任命為華盛頓大學新應用數學系的首任主席，並於 1986-1987 年休假擔任國家科學基金會（NSF）應用數學項目共同主任。1988 年，他成為自然科學和數學科學副院長，負責監督華盛頓大學的 14 個科系。1992-1994 年離開華盛頓大學後，他被任命為 NSF 數學科學部門主任，成為唯一一位在加拿大和美國負責純粹和應用數學研究的聯邦民間資助機構的負責人。
1995 年溫耀明出任爾灣加大副校長和研究院院長，在他的領導下，校外研究經費大幅提升。2000年，溫耀明回到數學教授的職位後，在美國國家衛生研究院（NIH）和國家科學基金會的支持下，著手進行了發育和細胞生物學領域的新研究方向，並啟動了數學和計算生物學新興領域的大學部和研究所的新課程。
溫耀明於 2017 年春季學季末，從加州大學爾灣分校正式退休。
溫張玉賢
張玉賢出生於香港，1947 年全家移居香港前一直住在中國汕頭。之後她在澳洲雪梨就讀高中，然後赴美在衞斯理學院（Wellesley College）獲得了物理學學士和化學碩士。1960 年 9 月她與溫耀明先生結婚。張玉賢在決定從事教學工作之前曾經從事生物化學研究。她在 Watertown 高中教授物理和化學，後來被任命為此學校系統的地區科學主任。在 Watertown期間，她同時攻讀研究所，並在波士頓學院獲得教育博士學位。張玉賢於 1979 年移居到西雅圖地區，首先擔任 Federal Way 學區的學區課程主任（1979-1983），然後擔任 BainbridgeIs land 學區的助理總監（1983-1992）。1993 年與夫婿舉家赴華盛頓特區，在美國國家科學基金會（NSF）工作兩年，擔任全州系統倡議
（SSI）主任，負責監督為 AR、FL、LA、RI、CA 和MA 每一州提供各 1000 萬美元的獎勵。夫婦倆之後搬到加州，她被委任為加州州立大學富勒頓分校（CSUFullerton）
科學與數學教育中心主任。張玉賢女士於2002 年從 CSU-Fullerton 退休，並兼職工作直到 2006年。（溫耀明博士提供）