the genius in the making
On the 9th of October 1949, a little baby girl was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. This was Fan Rong K Chung, and little did her parents know back then that she was going to be a very brilliant mathematician. Her mother was a home economics teacher in high school, who taught her the importance and advantages of economic independence, and how she should not just be “an attachment to man.” On the other hand, her father was an engineer, who directed her to pursue a career in mathematics. This was relatively easy for her since she was the top math student in her school and got into the National Taiwan University.
Life at penn
She was able to juggle her studies
and personal life.
After graduating in B.S. in Mathematics from Taiwan University, she decided to go to University of Pennsylvania to further study about mathematics. Herbert Wilf, the professor of mathematics in the university, was amazed and in awe of her. Fan Chung soon got her Master’s Degree and after two years, her Ph. D., as well. What was amazing though was that she attended graduate school while she was pregnant with her first child.
MATH, LOVE, SUCCESS
With Ronald Graham, the love of her life.
She soon got two job offers, even without an interview. One was a short term position at the University of Hawaii and the other was a position at a major research center for mathematics, Bell Labs. She chose the latter and her research, along with Ron Graham, was focused on combinatorics and discrete mathematics. After getting divorced with her first husband, Fan Chung married Ron Graham, as they were brought together by their passion for math. She later worked as a division manager in Bellcore. After twenty years of working in these two companies, she then became a professor in the University of Pennsylvania and is now currently a distinguished professor of Mathematics and Computer Science in the University of California in San Diego.