Professor Shuji Nakamura receives the Pioneer Award

Asian American researchers honored (amidst tensions)

By Randall Yip, Executive Editor

Some 2,000 people gathered at Stanford University in California recently to celebrate the achievements of five prominent Asian American scientists and engineers.

Underlying the award presentations and conference organized by the Asian American Scholars Forum late last month was a sense that both immigrants and the research community are under siege.

“I think we fellow immigrant scientists are facing extreme forces converging into a perfect storm when so many of the top research universities are facing attacks (as are) I know many of you … myself included,” said David Ho, a groundbreaking AIDS researcher and 1996 Time Magazine Man of the Year. “The second force is the attack or the assault on the scientific infrastructure that’s been built up since World War II.”

Ho along with Dr Mani Menon (robotic surgery), Shuji Nakamura (Nobel Prize-LED bulbs), the late Chih-Tang Sah (semiconductors) and the late Wong Tsoo (Boeing Aeronautic engineer) received the 2025 Asian American Pioneer Medal.

There were two schools of thought about developing an LED lightbulb. Nakamura took the minority view while an overwhelming majority of his colleagues chose a more popular path. Nakamura stood alone but ultimately turned out to be right. He developed the world’s first blue LED bulb. As he stated, he’s always been interested in “the impossible.” He hails from Ikata, Japan.

Fellow Pioneer Medal Winner Mani Menon picked up on that theme when he said “my grandfather gave a very spiritual thing when I asked him what I should do. He said, ‘I don’t care what you do, but don’t really do anything for yourself.  Do something for other people.”

Menon was born in Trichur, India. His research is credited with paving the way for using robotics to perform less invasive surgeries, particularly for prostate cancer.

Ho from Taichung, Taiwan turned AIDS from a death sentence to a manageable disease with his development of a drug cocktail to treat HIV.

Sah is from Shanghai. His research with Frank Wanlass at Fairchild Semiconductor is the basis of many of the tech items we use today- from smart phones to computers.

Wong is from Beijing. He is Boeing’s first aeronautical engineer and developed the Model C, the company’s first successful aircraft.

What all the award winners had in common is their backstory. All of them are foreign born who either immigrated or did much of their research in the United States.

“I think the general public is not well aware of the fact the scientific workforce in America is heavily comprised of foreign talent,” said Ho. “The assault on anything foreign- it is rabid today and is potentially driving away raw talent…America includes the very best of all over the world.“

Nakamura agreed, telling AsAmNews by email that science is needed to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

“Science, academic research and higher education are most important for humanity,” he wrote. “An increase in population could cause a shortage of food, water and energy in the near future. Only science could solve these problems.”

Photo caption: Asian American Pioneer Medal Symposium and Ceremony at Stanford University in July 2025. AsAmNews photo From L-R Moderator Sophia Fu, Mani Menon, Steven Chu, Shuji Nakamura, Thomas Sudhof and David Ho