Dr. Michael Wong was born in Quebec City, Canada to Chinese immigrant parents. As a young child, he moved to California, assimilating into American culture and becoming a US citizen with his siblings and parents. From high school, where he had impactful teachers in the sciences and the humanities, he went to the California Institute of Technology to study Chemical Engineering and then to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he completed his graduate studies and met his wife. Today, he is the chair of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at Rice University and is proud to represent Chinese Americans in academia. During the interview, Dr. Wong’s experience of growing up Chinese American, current Asian American representation in media and academia, and how he raises his two daughters in two cultures.
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