Chou Doctoral Prize in IST Established

The Ben P.C. Chou Doctoral Prize recognizes outstanding doctoral dissertations in the broad area of information science and technology. The Prize was established by his wife, June, and his son, Scott (BS 1986), as a lasting tribute for Ben's lifetime dedication to the pursuit of scholarly research and foregoing personal gain in favor of always doing the right thing for society. Professor Pen-chu “Ben” Chou was born in China and suffered a childhood disrupted by a revolutionary war that ultimately took his father. At the age of 13, his mother took him and his two younger sisters to Taiwan as war refugees where she raised the three of them on her own. Prof Chou went on to complete his undergraduate at Tunghai University, his master’s degree at the University of Missouri, and his doctorate at the University of Oklahoma. He spent the bulk of his career doing research and teaching at The Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston and Jilin University in Changchun, China. Prof Chou is noted for his pioneering contributions in developing photoreactivity for thin film superconductors and helping establish OCEF, an international charitable foundation headquartered in Houston, Texas. The first winner of this prize was Albert Chern whose advisor was Peter Schroeder. [Read Dr. Chern’s thesis]