Taylor Gun-Jin Wang (born June 16, 1940) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scientist and in 1985, became the first ethnic Chinese person to go into space. While an employee of the
Jet Propulsion LaboratoryJet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is situated in the northern portion of Pasadena...
, Wang was a
payload specialistIn NASA vernacular, a Payload Specialist ' was an individual selected and trained by commercial or research organizations for flights of a specific payload on a Space Shuttle mission...
on the
Space Shuttle ChallengerSpace Shuttle Challenger was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia being the first. Its maiden flight was on April 4, 1983, and it completed nine missions before breaking apart 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission, STS-51-L on January 28, 1986, resulting...
mission
STS-51-BSTS 51-B was the seventeenth flight of a Space Shuttle and the seventh flight of Challenger.-Crew:-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass:**Orbiter liftoff: 111,676 kg**Orbiter landing: 96,097 kg...
.
With ancestry in
YanchengYancheng is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China. The city with the largest jurisdiction area in Jiangsu, Yancheng borders Lianyungang to the north, Huai'an to the west, Yangzhou and Taizhou to the southwest, Nantong to the south, and looks out to...
,
Jiangsu' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Wang was born in
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
to Wang Zhang (王章) and Yu Jiehong (俞潔虹). He moved to
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
in 1952 with his family. He studied his later part of
elementary schoolAn elementary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America...
in
KaohsiungKaohsiung is a city located in southwestern Taiwan. It is enclosed by Kaohsiung County, and faces the Taiwan Strait on the west. Kaohsiung, officially named Kaohsiung City, is divided into eleven districts...
, and graduated from the
The Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal UniversityThe Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University , is considered a top school among Taiwan's high schools. It is ranking second among all the senior high schools in Taiwan, requiring students who get PR99 and 98 on the national senior high school entrance exams...
in
TaipeiTaipei is the largest city in Taiwan and has served as the de facto capital of the Republic of China since the Chinese Civil War in 1949. It is situated on the Danshui River, almost at the northern tip of the island, about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
.
Taylor Gun-Jin Wang (born June 16, 1940) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scientist and in 1985, became the first ethnic Chinese person to go into space. While an employee of the
Jet Propulsion LaboratoryJet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is situated in the northern portion of Pasadena...
, Wang was a
payload specialistIn NASA vernacular, a Payload Specialist ' was an individual selected and trained by commercial or research organizations for flights of a specific payload on a Space Shuttle mission...
on the
Space Shuttle ChallengerSpace Shuttle Challenger was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, Columbia being the first. Its maiden flight was on April 4, 1983, and it completed nine missions before breaking apart 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission, STS-51-L on January 28, 1986, resulting...
mission
STS-51-BSTS 51-B was the seventeenth flight of a Space Shuttle and the seventh flight of Challenger.-Crew:-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass:**Orbiter liftoff: 111,676 kg**Orbiter landing: 96,097 kg...
.
With ancestry in
YanchengYancheng is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China. The city with the largest jurisdiction area in Jiangsu, Yancheng borders Lianyungang to the north, Huai'an to the west, Yangzhou and Taizhou to the southwest, Nantong to the south, and looks out to...
,
Jiangsu' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Wang was born in
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
to Wang Zhang (王章) and Yu Jiehong (俞潔虹). He moved to
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
in 1952 with his family. He studied his later part of
elementary schoolAn elementary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America...
in
KaohsiungKaohsiung is a city located in southwestern Taiwan. It is enclosed by Kaohsiung County, and faces the Taiwan Strait on the west. Kaohsiung, officially named Kaohsiung City, is divided into eleven districts...
, and graduated from the
The Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal UniversityThe Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University , is considered a top school among Taiwan's high schools. It is ranking second among all the senior high schools in Taiwan, requiring students who get PR99 and 98 on the national senior high school entrance exams...
in
TaipeiTaipei is the largest city in Taiwan and has served as the de facto capital of the Republic of China since the Chinese Civil War in 1949. It is situated on the Danshui River, almost at the northern tip of the island, about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
. He later moved to
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
. He started studying physics in UCLA in 1963, and received his
M.S.A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in a large number of countries...
in 1968, and his doctoral in low temperature superfluid physics and solid state physics in 1971.
After completing his doctorate, Wang joined the
California Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. The Institute maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering, and operates and manages NASA's neighboring Jet Propulsion Laboratory...
's
Jet Propulsion LaboratoryJet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is situated in the northern portion of Pasadena...
(JPL) in 1972, as a senior scientist. At JPL he was responsible for the inception and development of containerless processing science and technology research. He was the Principal Investigator (PI) on the Spacelab 3 mission NASA Drop Dynamics (DDM) experiments, PI on the NASA SPAR Flight Experiment #77-18 "Dynamics of Liquid Bubble," PI on the NASA SPAR Flight Experiment #76-20 "Containerless Processing Technology," and PI on the Department of Energy Experiment "Spherical Shell Technology."
He gained US
citizenshipCitizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, or national community.Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
in 1975, and published a paper on dynamic behavior of rotating spheroids in
zero gravityWeightlessness is a phenomenon experienced by people during free-fall. Although the term zero gravity is often used as a synonym, weightlessness in orbit is not the result of the force of gravity being eliminated or even significantly reduced...
the next year. The paper received attention in
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
, and Wang was selected as a payload specialist on June 1, 1983 for the
Spacelab-3Spacelab was a reusable laboratory flown into space on the Space Shuttle. It allowed scientists to perform experiments in microgravity in Earth orbit...
mission.
Wang conducted precursor drop dynamics experiments for the DDM in ground-based laboratories employing acoustic levitation systems, neutral buoyancy systems and drop towers, and in the near weightless environment provided by JSC's KC-135 airplane flights and SPAR rockets. These flights have helped to define the experimental parameters and procedures in the DDM experiments performed on Spacelab 3. He is the inventor of the acoustic levitation and manipulation chamber for the DDM.
Wang flew on STS-51B Challenger (April 29-May 6, 1985). STS-51B/Spacelab-3 was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California. It was the first operational Spacelab mission. The seven-man crew aboard Challenger conducted investigations in crystal growth, drop dynamics leading to containerless material processing, atmospheric trace gas spectroscopy, solar and planetary atmospheric simulation, cosmic rays, laboratory animals and human medical monitoring.
The launch was flawless; all systems were “go”, except for Dr. Wang’s experiment. His experimental apparatus developed a malfunction. The possibility of going home empty handed saddened him. As the first person of Chinese descent to go into Space, the Chinese American community had taken a keen interest in his mission. Failure would be such a disappointment. In Asian culture, the first thing you learn as a kid is to bring no shame to the family.
He asked mission-control’s permission to repair his instrument, and they denied his request—for good reasons. He understood NASA’s point of view, but, in a total desperation, he said, “If you guys don’t give me a chance to repair my instrument,
I’m not going back.”
Fortunately for him, NASA decided not to call his bluff, and granted him a chance to repair his instruments. Working around the clock, and around the Earth, he repaired the instrument, and the experiment was a success - it continues to contribute his current research interest.
At mission conclusion, Wang traveled over 2.9 million miles in 110 Earth orbits, and logged over 168 hours in space. By all accounts, it was a successful mission. However, the mission had a close call, STS-51B mission commander Overmyer discovered while serving on the Challenger accident investigation team that 51-B had had a similar problem with its O-rings during the launch. Morton Thiokol engineers told STS-51B crew, Don Lind that "
you all came within three-tenths of one second of dying".
Utilizing insights from compound droplet experiments performed in the microgravity of NASA Shuttle Mission STS-51-B, Dr. Taylor Wang, has developed an immunoisolation encapsulation system that protects cellular transplants, and sustains cell function — without immunosuppression drugs and their resulting negative side effects. This novel immunoisolation system is a multi-component, multi-membrane capsule that allows independent optimization of all capsule design parameters ensuring reproducible functions in large animals and humans. Results of Encapsulife's successful large animal trials, have recently been published in peer-reviewed research in Transplantation Journal. In this landmark research, encapsulated canine pancreatic islets were transplanted into dogs rendered diabetic by total pancreatectomy. No immunosuppression or anti-inflammatory therapy was used. The allotransplantations of encapsulated islets were well tolerated and biocompatible, and normalized fasting blood glucose levels in all of 9 dogs, were achieved for over two hundred days, with a single transplantation. Re-transplantation of encapsulated islets — a "booster" — was effective in providing glycemic control beyond the initial 200 days.
.
Wang later became a Centennial Professor at Vanderbilt UniversityVanderbilt University is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the South...
in Nashville, TennesseeTennessee is a state located in the Southeastern United States. According to the 2008 census, it has a population of 6,214,888, an increase of nearly 9.5% since 2000. Tennessee is the 14th fastest growing state in the US and is ranked 17th by population. It is ranked 36th by total land area. In...
. He has written about 200 journal articles and holds 28 U.S. patents on acoustics, drop and bubble dynamics, collision and coalescenceCoalescence is the process by which two or more droplets or particles merge during contact to form a single daughter droplet . It can take place in many processes, ranging from meteorology to astrophysics. For example, it is both involved in the formation of raindrops as well as planetary and star...
of drops, charged drop dynamics, containerless science, and encapsulation of living cells. His experiments were carried out in 1992 in United States Microgravity Laboratory 1 (USML-1), and in 1995 aboard USML-2.
Wang is married to Xueping Feng (馮雪平) with two sons, Kenneth Wang and Eric Wang.
External links